This is a topic that has been in the news a lot recently, and has sparked a massive debate – most of it polite, but some of it not so. From my understanding of it, the government is considering legislation that will make gay marriage legal – at the moment, here in Britain, we only have civil partnerships – by 2015, although churches will not be forced to perform them.
Personally, I think this is a good thing – although I don’t like the fact that the church can turn the couple away on the basis of the fact that they are gay. There are gay Christians, quite a lot of them (and I’m not referring to the Christian on Eastenders, who is gay), and they have every right to get married in a church – more right, I’m tempted to say, than someone like me, who is an atheist, straight but I’d like to get married in a church because it’s tradition, most girls dream of their big white church wedding etc. Why are churches happy enough to marry these people, but can refuse people of their own faith purely because of who they fall in love with?
You can’t help who you fall in love with – that’s one thing I’m fairly sure of. I disagree that homosexuality is a choice, or something caused by nurture – I didn’t sit down and choose to be heterosexual, so why do people assume that gay people sit down one day and think, “Right, shall I be gay or straight? I know, I’ll be gay!”. I really can’t see that happening, somehow. I think love is love, and you can’t help who you fall in love with. The sooner people appreciate that – especially Christians, who preach so much about love and acceptance – the better.
The church leaders say they’re trying to “preserve traditional marriage” – why can’t they just extend traditional marriage so that gay people are afforded that right too? What is so bad about changing tradition – there are so many traditions that are now outdated and aren’t used anymore because they’re considered old-fashioned or even “wrong”, and to be honest I think that the tradition of only allowing heterosexual couples to marry is wrong and old-fashioned too.
Why do children need a mother and a father? Why not a father and a father or a mother and a mother, especially when they’ve been adopted – two caring parents of the same sex are surely better than abusive heterosexual parents, or no parents at all, or being in a care home when they don’t have any real parental figures – only carers? As long as the child is cared for and loved, that’s all that matters.
Some people are worried that gay marriage would make homosexuality appear to be “normal” – and that’s a bloody good thing! It shouldn’t be seen as something disgusting or abnormal because it isn’t – it is love, the most natural thing in the world regardless of who it is you fall in love with, as long as both parties are legally able to consent and do consent to it. It’s time we became more accepting of people – this is all due to fear, which is due to ignorance, and if those people who are so afraid of accepting something new would reconsider their perspectives and realize that love is something beautiful, regardless of who it’s between, perhaps the world might be a little more happier.
the life of a moomin 