Our New Second-Class Citizens

Across America this November 4th, millions of Americans went to the polls and made a historic choice: to confer second-class status on a new group of Americans. With an African-American man elected to our highest office and a woman having made the first viable run at the Vice-Presidency, it may be a bit premature to say that racism and sexism are dead, but that we've made enormous strides is undeniable.

So we need a new second-class citizen, and in 4 states Americans have spoken: gays and lesbians apparently fit the bill. Voters in Arizona, California, and Florida voted to ban gay marriage. And Arkansas banned gay couples from adopting children. This follows the 2004 decision by ten other states---Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Utah---to ban marriage between consenting adults of the same sex.

What are the arguments for banning gay marriage? "Marriage is between a man and a woman" is the usual, sometimes expressed colloquially as "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve". Gay marriage "undermines the family" and "erodes the definition of marriage between straight people".

Well, I live in a rational state---Massachusetts. Gay marriage is legal here, and guess what? My family hasn't been "undermined". My marriage hasn't "eroded".

Whatever your opinions of homosexuality are, it's real. It exists. It's not going anywhere. Gay people are not going to vanish. They are your neighbors, your co-workers, your friends, and your family (whether you know it or not). They're also human beings, whether you like it or not. And you have no right to label them less than human.

But I can't stop anyone from being homophobic. It's called a phobia for a reason, because it's just as irrational, and unexplainable, as arachnaphobia or agoraphobia or triskaidekaphobia. That's the irrational fear of the number 13, by the way (apologies to the triskaidekaphobes out there).

I have bad news for you, though. Eventually the Supreme Court of the Unites States will declare bans on gay marriage unconstitutional, and every state will legalize gay marriage. And here's the reason, the first ten words of the First Amendment to the Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...

This is the separation of church and state, a separation which so far is paid just so much lip service by all of us. It means that no church's religious beliefs are endorsed officially by our government. And since bans on gay marriage stem from religious positions---some would argue by religious persecution---they will ultimately be defeated. And this is just and right, because American cannot continue to claim to be the greatest nation on earth as long as any of its citizens---black, white, male, female, gay, or straight---are conferred second-class status.