I can hardly wait for the backlash to the recent People magazine cover story ‘Ellen and Portia’s Wedding,’ a profile of the ubiquitous Ms. (is it Mrs. now?) DeGeneres and her bride Portia de Rossi.
The scathing comments and hate filled tirades sure to bombard the celebrity weekly will show just how far we haven’t come.
Though the California Supreme Court recently overturned the ban on gay marriage, we are only part of a whole, and though’ this country positions itself on the steadfast cornerstone of equality and pretends to be progressive, the uproar against gay marriage proves we are anything but accepting of the changes demanded by our evolving society.
I can imagine the horrified expressions on my far-in-the-future grandchildren’s faces when I tell them I lived in a time when people hated others because of who they loved and I can practically hear the nation’s collective sigh at our own ignorance. We will look back at this time in our country’s history with the same disbelief that we now express at our ancestor’s mistreatment of African Americans.
As if our treatment of gay couples as inferior to their straight counterparts wasn’t asinine enough, the reasons people give for their homophobic attitudes are worse. Anti-gay activists are so quick to invoke ‘American values’ and religion as shields for their hate-filled attitudes while apparently ignoring the degradation of marriage by the ‘ideal’ man and woman pairings of the past quarter century.
The state of marriage that proponents of gay marriage say they are protecting no longer exists. While I understand the desire to sanctify the union between two committed adults, I have to think that Pamela Anderson’s second and third trips down the aisle and ensuing few-month-marriages say more about the state of modern marriage than the union of gay couples.
The oft-mentioned and ever increasing divorce rate exemplifies the inequality between straight and gay couples.
Why is it that heterosexual couples are allowed to marry, divorce and remarry multiple times, to make a mockery of the commitment of marriage and flaunt their legal rights in the faces of those who so badly want to marry the one they love, but can’t because they love someone of the same gender?
Why? Because God says so. At least that’s the line invoked by anti-gay activist that routinely damn gays and lesbians to hell because of who they love.
Yes, Leviticus 18:22 may stipulate that a man shall not lie with another man as with a woman, but other biblical excerpts disallow the braiding of hair, wearing of gold and pearls, and displays of physical beauty. Religious decrees are being picked and chosen. People adopt those they agree with while ignoring those they deem less important.
But it seems that all of those who hate others because of their sexuality are ignoring a core tenant of any religion: to love one another.
If you’re going to quote Leviticus, please include John 13:34 too. Love one another, it simply says. It doesn’t say love one another, you know, except for the gay ones. No exceptions. Just love.
Yes, there may be differences between heterosexual and homosexual couples, but marriage is a promise of love and commitment.
If there was any doubt that those elements lacked from gay unions, the photographs of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi’s wedding should dispel that notion. The tangible love between the two is a feeling that goes beyond the confines of gender.
The decision to share their union with today’s quick-to-judge society takes more than courage. It involves overcoming deeply-ingrained fears of rejection. How very biblical of them.
As John 4:18 says,’There is no fear where love exists. Rather, perfect love banishes fear, for fear involves punishment, and the person who lives in fear has not been perfected in love.’
