it's not politics, it's vanity

My apologies to JFK if I misquoted him in my title, but it makes total sense to me when I think about the Federal Marriage Amendment. This week, the Senate took a cloture vote on this amendment, hoping to shine a spotlight on this issue for the upcoming elections. Frankly, I think we have more important issues out there than defining marriage to be between a man and a woman--like immigration, social security (anyone else remember how it's gonna run out before we need it?), and that war we've been fighting in Iraq. From a bigger perspective, the timing sucks. However, the GOP got less votes than they expected and the amendment is dead for the rest of the year.

Amending the constitution to include bigotry is absurd to me. From a civil (non-religious) perspective, marriage is a legally binding agreement between two people. And since the "church" separated from the "state" a LONG time ago (allegedly), a religious argument for this amendment shouldn't matter. So, if two people want to sign a paper that says that they are a couple, why should the government care if those two people are of the same sex? Because God said it shouldn't be? If God is the issue, then this just takes me back to my church and state argument.

Now, if this is about protecting the sanctimony of marriage, then we should make divorces illegal. The fact that over 50% of marriages end in divorce truly devalues the meaning of marriage. All of you who believe this argument (I'm looking at you, Sen. George Allen of VA with your divorce and confederate-flag-waving) need to seek to amend the constitution to abolish divorces.

Or, if you are Sandra Rodrigues of Utah (click on link for background story), then you support this proposed amendment because same sex marriage endorses masturbation. Ummm...I fail to see how that is detrimental to the country but if that's what you believe, then perhaps anti-masturbation and anti-sodomy laws are more your cup of tea. But I don't want the government telling me what I can't and can't do in my own bedroom. Do you?

And now a dare. I dare you to come up with a non-religious reason for banning same-sex marriage. I refuse to believe that one exists.