Joshua Horton

Last month the American Family Association decided to run a poll on gay marriage. The AFA was going to use this poll as supporting evidence to push for a law defining marriage as between a man and a woman, halting any chance of gay marriage from becoming a reality.

Foolishly planned, once the URL of the polling site was noticed by the masses, the results from the poll actually strongly supported gay marriage. Quickly the AFA attacked those who had voted more than once and for those who had not voted honestly. Personally, they did it to themselves by trusting the power of the Internet to justify their cause and not hiring a credible polling firm.

Gay marriage has become a steaming issue in the last few years, but it’s finally boiling over this year as this election year makes everyone act a little crazy. Take George Bush for example. In his view this year should not be about the economy, massive job loss, and the occupation of Iraq, the War on Terror, the environment, social security, Medicare, or even student loans. No this year the big issue is on whether homosexuals should have the freedom to marry.

Yes, in the footsteps, or should I say sidesteps, of his father, Bush seems to be avoiding the real issues this election year for some good ol’ boy issues of government control of personal rights. It confuses me why the Republican Party wants to make the first amendment to the constitution that actually limits personal freedom; being that it is the party of individual responsibility and less government intrusion into people’s lives.

This amendment would define marriage as being between a man and a woman. Simple enough right? Well think about this; by creating such an amendment you make all homosexuals second class citizens by denying them the right to marry. Everyone knows about second class citizens. The history of the United States is full of them; many are still fighting to be full citizens.

Are we ready for gay marriage in America? Sadly, no, the majority of Americans have strange expectations and ideas of gays. People just don’t understand that they are people, wanting love, success and happiness just like everyone else.

Will there be an amendment? I’m not sure. It scares me that people would want to legislate over the personal choices of people. Government was founded to protect people’s rights to live how they choose, not to tell people how to live.

Right now the nation’s divorce rate is more than 50 percent and growing. We should be encouraging consenting adults that truly love each other to marry and not discouraging that important institution on a basis of fear and misunderstanding. I said it before and I’ll say it again, we should not be dividing ourselves because of difference, but we should be uniting on a basis of being human beings.

Reach Joshua Horton at [email protected].