Living in a culturally diverse city such as Boston has its advantages. Not only do we get a variety of culturally inspiring options for meals and entertainment all around the metro area, but we enjoy certain freedoms not granted to all equally everywhere else. I’m specifically referring to the right to marriage by gay individuals.
I have had the opportunity to talk with my gay friends about marriage. I know a few who moved to Massachusetts particularly to exercise this right, or to simply have the option to do so in the future. Some others do not live in this state and are not planning on moving any time soon. One friend in particular preferred to define marriage in her own terms: love, trust, commitment. She did not need a piece of paper to define her relationship; however, she was hopeful that the time would come, and that things were moving in the right direction.
Currently, 5 states grant same-sex marriage licenses (Mass, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire and Washington DC), but this license is only recognized at the state level, plus in 3 more states (New York, Maryland and Rhode Island). I finally understood what this meant after another friend told me “I can’t move to Florida: I’m not married there.” Now there’s a sentence you will never hear a heterosexual couple say. It is outrageous to think that you can be free in one state and a second-class citizen in another.
The revocation of same-sex marriage in California was a disappointing blow to the gay rights movement. It’s a step in the wrong direction and it slows down progress towards the goal of equality for all. I still have no idea why anyone would go against that very simple concept, “equality,” which has made this country the “land of freedom”?
My friend expressed her opinion that most of the opposition rests in the older demographic, and younger people were in favor of equality, for the most part. I joked that all we have to do then is wait for the opposition to grow old and die off before she can get equal rights. Sadly, she somewhat agreed that it might in fact take that long.
What do you think? Is equal rights an unachievable goal on our generation? If you disagree with the equality argument, why do you?
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