During the debate in Maryland's House, I joined same-sex marriage supporters outside of the chambers who were anxiously awaiting the vote. I met two moms and their 4-year-old son Will. After standing for hours, Will was tired and seemed a bit uninterested. I could only imagine how hard it would be to understand the complex discussions as a 4-year-old.
But the next day I saw a photo of Will and his family taken right after the House voted in support of marriage equality. His little face was lit up with joy, and he was cheering as his moms hugged him with the love that only a mother can provide. Will may not have understood the debates, but his smile after the vote proved one very important thing: even a 4-year-old knows the value of human dignity.
Yesterday was a day for Maryland's children. It was a day for human dignity. After years of hard work, we signed a bill into law that protects individual civil marriage rights and religious freedom equally. Yesterday, we came together as One Maryland and showed that there is more that unites us than divides us.
Our efforts were in essence about the dignity of every child's home. All of us, wherever we happen to stand on the marriage equality issue, can agree that all our children deserve the opportunity to live in a loving, caring, committed, and stable home, protected equally under the law.
Religious freedom was the very reason for our state's founding. And at the heart of religious freedom is respect for the freedom of individual conscience.
We are a people of many different religions and many different faiths. The only way forward in a pluralistic society of diverse faiths such as ours is to have laws that protect and respect the freedom of all, equally.
That's why we joined together -- as clergy and faith-based leaders, as community activists and civil rights leaders, as volunteers, as legislators, and as citizens -- and passed a bill that provides equal protection under the law for every individual, and the free exercise of religion without government interference.
The common thread running through our efforts together in Maryland is the thread of human dignity: the dignity of work, the dignity of faith, the dignity of family, the dignity of every individual, the dignity of a free people who, at the end of the day, all want the same thing for our children.
We are One Maryland.
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I fear this same logic will be applied to other push-button issues in the U.S., such as illegal immigration, Sharia law, legalization of marijuana, and doctor-assisted suicide, among others. If the logic fits, wear it:
"It's time we legalize [blank] and allow people to be who they are. We've wasted far too much time and effort trying to prevent what we have no right preventing in the first place."
... I know the report was supported by a Catholic organization, but it heavily cites legal, medical, and social science work.â€
I did look at the link web site and the references. Did you actually read the article and look at the references? I'd advise to not use this again. You are correct about the bias which is unfortunate and most of the references are not science. The ones that qualify as acceptable are about the STDs. That topic has nothing to do with monogamous relationships, civil unions and marriage. Nothing. It was unfortunate and rather curious why you would post this to me. I'm sure you mean well, but these folks on the religious side often lie and they most certainly use myths without looking into them to see if there is any truth to what they are saying. The reason that no evidence holds up in courts is because there is no factual evidence that can withstand the court legal process of cross examination and peer review of expert evidence (from expert scientists in their domains). The religious rights people almost always use experts that are not experts and are not peer accepted and haven't had their work peer reviewed and accepted.
Homosexuality is part of human behavior.People are born that way. It is a small percentage of our population but consistent. To stabilize relationships of high personal bonds is good for society.
If you believe that "People are born that way," you may want to fix a sentence in the lead paragraph in the Wikipedia article on "Biology and sexual orientation" where it states: "No simple, single cause for sexual orientation has been conclusively demonstrated."
As I say, I think popular opinion is going towards accepting same-sex marriage. Their voices have been loud and long now, and the media in the U.S. tends to favor "anything goes".
Personally, though, I'm not convinced it's the best thing for society.
Peace.
Clue; if your position is strong you won't need to silence dissenters by deleting them from the discussion.
However, I think we should give gay-marriage a different name. For example, a "tangelo" is a hybrid of tangerine and grapefruit. A "nectarine" is a crossbreed of peach and plum. While neither is inferior to the other, I would like to be able to identify each fruit correctly. Therefore, to me, it makes sense to identify if a particular marriage is "heterosexual" or "homosexual". For example, why don't we leave the term "marriage" to the traditional union between a man and a woman, and then name the marriage between same-sex partners be something equal but different?
Those who seek to enter into an agreement that would work better in modern society should stay away.
your church can marry religiously whomever or whatever it wants. It could for instance marry my dog and my cat.
Sorry but no benefits for the animals except religious ones as they see it
One problem, obviously, is the persistent fairy-tale of religion & what some imaginary cloud-daddy supposedly said about who we should have sex with.
Well, its time to evolve past that archaic nonsense and realize it was just some ancient homophobe in a position of power, probably trying to cover up his own gayness by attacking the gay population. (sound familiar?) Not some omnipotent being that peers in on the bedroom activities of 7 billion people with a check-list.
We have such a long way to go as a species before our intellect and compassion surpasses our penchant for violence and idol worship. If the disease of religion cant be cured we have less and less hope of survival, and a bigger and bigger chance of all dying in a self-fulfilling "prophecy" of nuclear war. For a religion that is supposed to be tolerant, there doesnt seem to be many followers that actually tolerate.
So before the righteous righties complain about the harmful effects of someone else`s lifestyle (that never even gets near them) maybe they should look at the harm their own war-mongering, misogynistic, immigrant-hating beliefs cause.