Married: Over, Under & Through

The controversy over same-sex marriage is really getting wearisome, dispiriting, lackluster, banal & just plain blah. I don’t understand how the common folk of these here United States fail to see the religious components of this bigoted dispute. Think for a moment of all of the arguments that you’ve heard concerning them “homersekshalz” wantin to get hitched…and then, apply these tests to each argument:

Three tests have been derived from various court decisions to decide the constitutionality of laws that have a religious component:
The Lemon test: This was defined in a Supreme Court ruling in 1971. To be constitutional, a law must:
• have a secular purpose, and
• be neutral towards religion - neither hindering nor advancing it, and
• not result in excessive entanglements between the government and religion.
The Endorsement Test: Justice O'Connor created this criterion: a law is unconstitutional if it favors one religion over another in a way that makes some people feel like outsiders and others feel like insiders.
The Coercion Test: Justice Kennedy proposed this criteria: a law is constitutional even if it recognizes or accommodates a religion, as long as its demonstration of support does not appear to coerce individuals to support or participate in a religion. Hello, Mary! I’m seein excessive entanglements between gov’t & religion. I’m seein some people bein made to feel like outsiders. I’m seein coercion to support biblical references. What part of this ain’t ya graspin?!

We’re obviously back to the semantics game again. The principal argument against same-sex marriage is based on antiquated biblical references. If you believe that only a man & a woman should be married, you are, in fact, accepting the belief that marriage is strictly for reproduction. Where’s the Love, children. The Constitution is very clear about our rights as citizens of the United States. It is also very clear about individual states not fucking with those rights. I’m not going to go into this again. If you would like to read more about my views on same-sex marriage, read one of my previous blog entries: COURT-ORDERED SACRAMENT. I will, however, leave you with this wonderful definition of semantics.

SEMANTICS: The scientific or philosophical study of the relations of words and their meanings. Note: Semantics is commonly used to refer to a trivial point or distinction that revolves around mere words rather than significant issues: “To argue whether the medication killed the patient or contributed to her death is to argue over semantics.”
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.