Actually, I believe history will record the passage of Proposition 8, although banning gay marriage now, as the item that will thrust gay marriage into being permanently approved, if not socially, at least legally across the United States. I feel that the passage of Proposition 8 is going to be judged in the courts as a violation of a person’s civil rights and will be permanently shot down as a result.
The debate will continue that gays should not have a marriage, but a civil union. People are polarized on both sides of that debate. Religions will have to square themselves on that issue as well as the populace, but Proposition 8’s passage, at least to me, a non-card-carrying judge, seems to be a violation of a person’s rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I’m confident judicial review will bear me out on this issue.
Gay marriage or civil union would give gays, who are a couple already, a certain common sense legal status that heterosexuals already have such as insurance coverage, spousal rights pertaining to health matters and other rights necessary to couples who are married. We currently give more credence to people who are cohabitating for years than to gay couples who would like to make their relationship legal in society’s eyes.
I will confess that I am probably a red-blooded red neck when it comes to the gay issue, or at least I used to be. After teaching elementary school for 30 years, I have seen over that time a number of students that I felt were gay for one reason or another. I don’t mean that observation to be judgmental in any way; it’s just that I saw an element of that student’s personality that indicated to me that they were of a different inclination than the other students. I did not ever treat these students any differently and my observation went under the heading of a mental note as to their difference from their fellow students.
Years later, my hunch has proven to be true in every case. These students are gay and they were when I had them as students. The key point here is that people think that gays set out to be gay. I firmly believe they come from the womb wired that way and we are not going to change that by harassing them, hounding them, or in any other way making their lives an utter turmoil that sometimes drives them to self destruction. Families shouldn’t disown them any more than a child with Down syndrome but rather embrace them if for no other reason than the fact that they are different. We say that their behavior is abnormal, but for the gays their behavior is normal for them as they do not know any different any more than a heterosexual knows any different behavior.
In nature there are creatures that start out male, regenerate into female, reproduce and then change back to male. We don’t carry out vendettas on these creatures for their “abnormal” behavior and it’s well we don’t. They are, after all, God’s creatures.
I have served in the military with gays and known them to be good soldiers. I have taught school with gays and found them to be some of the best teachers I’ve ever worked with.
Gays are often hard workers, multi-talented, extremely intelligent and very gregarious. When they made the huge quilt a few years ago to show how many people died from AIDS I was flabbergasted at the extremely talented people we no longer had in our midst as a result of that disease. I was truly saddened to see that quilt and realize what talented people our society would no longer have around to contribute to the betterment of that same society that would denigrate gays into oblivion.
If you go to see “Milk,” think of the courage, devotion and intelligence Harvey Milk must have had to pursue his political career in his time or even our time, for that matter.
Larry Wilson is a 50-year resident of Sparks and a retired elementary school teacher. You can contact him at lawilson16@aol.com.
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