Proposition eight and Vermont

Earlier this week, the Vermont State Senate voted almost unanimously to legalize same-sex marriage in their state, shedding some positive news in an otherwise grim year for the movement towards equality in America and Abroad. The full article can be found here http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-03-23-vermont-marriage_N.htm and the below are my thoughts on the issue.

I think its disappointing that something like marriage has become so cheap and commercial, that its become something that people can take ownership of instead of it being a celebration of two people's feelings for one another. We've taken the most beautiful of emotion in the whole world and stolen it from each other, simply because they're different...and that's sad that as a society, this is acceptable.

Keith Olbermann said it best when he said that this isn't about yelling or politics, its about the human heart. And its sad that something so beautiful has become something that can polarize a world and split people. And for what? Because some people don't want us to have the same chance at permanence and happiness in this life.

I'm sorry if I sound upset or anything, but I cannot understand why this is something that can be voted on, that can be challenged. What is being defended by preventing same-sex marriage, what is so terrible about two people who want to share their love with the world that they would commit to that love in a ceremony and contract? I keep hearing that America is the greatest country in the world, where everyone is equal and its the "land of opportunity"; so where is it? In a world as barren and devoid of love as the one we have, why, why are we still living in a place where people can take away that love because a religion tells people this is wrong. How does your conscience abide this decision to ban love between people, how does your HEART not cry out when you extinguish love so that your own love can feel just a little bit more important?

As I finish this rant, I want each and everyone one of you who reads this to think about one thing. Think of the people you love in your life, the people who you call family, that you call inseparable from your life and tell me, why should any of them be denied that special right to share their love, to express their love, and to be celebrated for their love? Because its not just some nameless person who gets hurt by taking away same sex marriages; its someone's son, daughter, brother, sister, cousin, niece or nephew, somebody's mother, father, uncle, aunt who's been condemned to a life without love, because that's what society tells us is right.

I leave as my final comment Kieth Olbermann's special commentary on proposition 8, from whom I receive my inspiration to write this last rant. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnHyy8gkNEE