Column

"It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.” - Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King once spoke famously about his dream and since the United States of America elected Barak Obama as their leader, this dream has since become a reality. Yet these words spoken in August 1963 can also be applied to the present day. On the 18th of November 2004, the houses of parliament in London, legislated the civil partnership act making it possible for same sex couples to receive the same rights as a typical marriage that has occurred between a man and a woman since the dawn of time.

In the city known for dreams coming true, on December 2nd 2009, the New York State Senate voted against the same-sex marriage bill.

Although a straight person myself, just as some whites appreciated and sympathised with the way blacks were being treated, I too am able to feel compassion for those couples who are unable to express to the world that they love each other and will do for as long as they have breath in their lungs.

Unlike popular belief, the issue of gay rights is not a religious one. It is a ban that’s consequences includes excludes rights to medical decision-making capacities, joint ownerships, financial benefits and so on. For example of a gay man or woman wishes to visit his/her partner, this right would not be permissible as they do not constitute a spouse or a family member. Additionally, if their partner faces deportation, this ban on marriage would see that the person they have loved and cherished for many years is sent back to the country they came from indefinitely.

I imagine, that just as I did not choose to love the opposite sex, one does not simply choose to love the same sex. In fact, what person in their right mind would choose to be discriminated against by friends, family, every religious temple and in this case, their own countries or cities?!

If you remove the idea of the benefits that can be received through marriage and simply boil the matter down to one thing, love, then is this something that the city owns the rights to? My city may own the rights to many things, but who I choose to declare my undying love to, is not one of them. Comparatively, should this not also apply to the thousands of gay men and women in the city of New York and other cities that have banned same-sex marriages from occurring in their regions?

One argument that many people put forth, is that of diseases that can be transmitted sexually between same-sex marriages and unions. If that is the case, then why is it that Elin Nordegren is currently being examined in a local clinic for various std’s that she may have transmitted as a result of her husband, Tiger Woods infidelity. And so the hypocrisy continues.