Gay Marriage

This is a great topic. I know that the APA has completely changed its tune, and now students are being kicked out of school for not being willing to do therapy with LGBTQ clients. It has come a long way! Now I hope, as you do, that the rest of the country will come to feel the same way and be accepting of all people, no matter our differences. Thank you for sharing!

You make some really good points. What I find most interesting about this issue is that the decision is being left up to the states. In this sense, the issue of gay marriage can draw some historical parallels to women's suffrage. If I remember correctly, Wyoming was the first state to grant women the right to vote, but more for publicity than equal rights. In much the same way, gay marriage is slowly being legalized by states around the country. This seems problematic to me because if it is indeed a civil rights issue, we should be deciding yes or no as an entire nation, not treating it as if it is something trivial like speed limits or the ability to buy beer on Sundays.

Reading your thoughts really intrigue me because I have always been for gay marriage. When being gay was considered a mental disorder, I assume that is because not enough research was done to actually know and understand that that is a false statement. It makes sense that people did not accept it back then. Now that everyone knows it is a real thing, it appalls me that people are so hateful and against it still. No one can help the way their brain has developed and how it works. We don't look down upon people with disabilities such as down syndrome and say that they aren't real people with rights. People pay special attention to people with a handicap and give them privileges and benefits. Why should gay marriage be any different?

I LOVE how you talk about how it personally give you comfort in a sense when the book talks about the scientific aspect/concern that has been arisen in the past. My initial reaction was very closed off, as I thought it was ridiculous that someone would ever stop to call a person 'diseased' because of their divergence that some consider the 'cultural norm'. But after hearing your closing statements I am happy to walk away with a very different perspective of the whole situation and admire your honest and selfless passion for it all.

I liked this blog post a lot. I seriously don't know why people think it's a huge deal for people of the same sex to get married. Love is love no matter who it involves. Maybe some day soon people will realize how ridiculous this long process for gay people to get married has been.

Being a gay male myself, I have always been interested in this subject (obviously). It's really amazed me how far this movement has gone. I remember when I was in middle school (2004-2007), the word "gay" was used in almost every single insult and practically every single sentence. Although, I was never called gay, it was still offensive to hear it being thrown out so casually. Now, 2012, I almost rarely hear it. There are still people out there who will continue their homophobic ways of their uneducated youth, but I feel that for the most part, the country as a whole as really grown in recognizing that homosexual people, along with many other people belonging to a minority are just that. People. Now, since I feel like the majority of the country supports the legalization of gay marriage (if not that, they at least don't have a problem with gay people, contradictory, but sure, whatever...), it puzzles me that we have not been able to vote on this as a country. I agree with what zimmie558 was saying about how we're treating it as something as "trivial like the speed limit." Hopefully by the end of the decade we'll have made some real progress as our seemingly more "open and accepting" generation (not to say we are the only generation who acts that way) begins to take positions as political leaders.

WOO! QUEER HIGH FIVE! It is interesting how many different areas arguments come from. Though I am as biased as you are, I personally don't think that any of them have much grounding. And though there are arguments from religion and things like that as well, I think that psychological arguments are the most important, and I think that since, as the book said, there are no negative psychological effects to sexual orientation or having queer parents that it's about time we as a nation got over this.