I am so happy about the Scotus ruling. I have so many friends and loved ones who have been in same sex relationships for years and are now granted the same rights to marry as everybody else. But we should all know by now that Christians are not good losers. I’m sorry, I know that is a horrible generalization and I want to give a huge shout out to the Episcopalian church for proving that not all Christians are like that, but the reaction and behavior of people across the country and here in Kentucky is just so hard for me to understand.
We have several county clerks in Kentucky who are refusing to give marriage licenses to same sex couples, others who are trying to force same sex couples to get their marriage licenses on line. I was expecting it to get nasty. I was expecting people to quit. There was an entire courthouse in Kentucky that quit rather than give out same sex marriage licenses. And while I don’t agree with their stance I respect the fact that they were willing to stand behind their convictions Unlike the people who are refusing to do their jobs, still collecting a paycheck and will eventually gave because they are given no choice, only to later use this grandstanding to either launch a larger political career. (Yes, I am a wee bit cynical.)
What kills me is the hypocrisy. I know a woman who works for the county clerks office and is defending her boss. This woman is a mixed race woman. According to the bible she shouldn’t be able to marry. Her existence is as offensive biblically. And nobody is seeing, or at least paying attention to the correlation.
I just don’t understand why it is such a big deal to them. We have this awesome thing in this country called the separation of church and state, so you can’t deny somebody their rights based on religious beliefs. Nobody is telling them they have to support gay marriage, but they have to do their jobs. They have to provide marriage licenses for same sex couples, just like mixed race couples and just like divorcees who are getting re-married.
People are so divided on this issue and it is really hard for me. And it makes me miss Key West all the more. The town motto is “One Human Family,” and while I am not going to pretend that Key West is some awesome utopia where intolerance doesn’t exist, intolerance isn’t tolerated the same way there as it is here. I remember when I was in high school a collection of churches on the island wouldn’t let the gay churches participate in the christmas parade and it wasn’t taken well by the community as a whole.
I am no Christian, but real or not I do have a great deal of respect for the values that Jesus taught. Why can’t the people who follow Christianity follow Christ’s example?