Thoughts on Gay Marriage

I know I am way past the vanguard of this conversation.  The limo has left the wedding reception.  For many, their honeymoon in the State of Washington was over at the end of August and now they are back to work and living in wedded bliss, just like hetro-ly married couples.

When I think of gay marriage, I think about kids.  While I am happy for the grown-ups who are able to celebrate life with a partner legally defined by the state, gay marriage sends a very strong message for kids growing up today: It is okay to love who you love.

I don't recall the exact statistics (and I don't want to guess at what I remember and spread bad data on the internet), but a disproportionate number of homosexual adolescents commit suicide and runaway from home.  They are more likely to be bullied at home and at school. I would hope that gay and questioning teenagers who are feeling depressed and confused look at right to marry laws and realize that the citizens of Washington think it is okay from them to love who they love, even if the unenlightened kid sitting next to them in homeroom doesn't.

I think about my kids and their friends.  It is highly probable that some of these kids I know are gay.  Even if they aren't "out" yet to their friends, families and communities, passing these laws are like wrapping a warm, fluffy blanket that just came out of the dryer around their shoulders that says, "It is okay to love who you love."  May this thought bring them comfort on dark days and make them reconsider drastic measures.

On a far less romantic note, gay people should have the rights of divorce, and you can't get divorced if you aren't legally married in the first place.  It is a right hetro couples have; gay people should have that right, too.

Jeremy Irons said a while back that gay marriage could make it legal for a man to marry his son.  Is it legal for a man to marry his daughter, or a woman to marry her son?  No.  Please stop using bad logic to question love between mutually consenting adults.