Marriage Equality

By Rosemary -- "--" (Galanda) Jenkins, --

As long as any male and female who fall in love can legally marry each other, then any two people who fall in love should have the same legal opportunity.

Marriage Equality is a right that will also one day be unquestioned and accepted, but we cannot wait for another decade or another generation to make this possible. The time has come for "equality" in all that that word implies be everyone's reality. It was not too long ago that people of different races could not marry in this country and that people of different religions were discouraged from taking that very important step to marriage. Perhaps not everyone in our nation even today agrees to the concept of marriage between people of different races and ethnicities as well as religions, but the ability of people to do so is no longer denied.

Just as the 1954 Supreme Court decision stated that "separate is inherently unequal," this philosophy must also apply to marriage. When such discrimination exists, one's self-worth is denigrated and diminished. What is more, the inability to marry one's partner precludes such a couple's ability to have equal representation before the law (such as with hospital visitation, child custody after a partner's death, tax requirements; furthermore, being gay in the military is but another arm of this issue).

Marriage Equality must no longer be in question. It is a right that all of us must be able to share equally!