Loquitur Dome: The Eternal Debate

inter-racial couple?

Homosexuality is becoming more and more acceptable in our society. It still has its hurdles to jump. The remark of someone heterosexual being "gay" is still an insult. There are people out there that just aren't going to accept that lifestyle. Just as the Ku Klux Klan still haunts the south.

In 1967, the Supreme Court ruled that state laws banning inte~_-racialmarriages were unconstitutional, Loving v. Virginia. In some cultures, they practice polygamy, the marriage of one man to many women. In the past, Tibet practiced polyandry, the marriage of one woman to many men. There was a time when 30year-old men married 15-year-old "women." And to people in our Western society the idea of marrying someone you've never met seems a little odd but arranged marriages were, at one time, just the way it was done. •

So why can't Adam marry Steve?

What is marriage? You find someone you love, who you think you could put up with for the next 50 or so years, someone pops the question and then you say your "I dos." It sounds simple enough but what if he doesn't love a her? Should he be denied the same fights that the rest of us share?

Flash back to 1967. Ever see the movie "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" She's a white woman from a nice family that has always been "liberal" until their daughter comes home with an African American man she met in Hawaii. Her father is in shock. Everyone is in shock.

Fast forward to today. Do you even look twice anymore at an

But I would say that a lot of people support the right to choose one's own individual lifestyle. If those people think it's okay to live that way, why don't they accept that homosexuals should have the right to live legally with someone they love? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

To say that marriages are exclusively meant for men and women is unfair. There was a time when marriage was only "meant" for people from the same economic class. It was only "meant" for people of the same race. It was only "meant" for people of the same religion. If our government acknowledges marriages despite these factors now, isn't it time to acknowledge same-sex marriages?

There are 1,049 rights afforded to heterosexual couples united in a civil marriage that homosexual couples are denied. These rights have been compiled into a list by the General Accounting Office of the federal government.

California passed a bill called Proposition 22. It says, "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." This bill, also known as the Protection of Marriage Act, was backed by state Senator Pete Knight. David Knight, his son, is openly gay.