There is no doubt in my mind that some Senators will make note of tomorrow’s date and try to use it as “proof” that gay marriage is wrong. The Pat Roberstons of the world will likely point out the fact that of course these debates are being held now and that it has to be the devil’s work that they’re even having conversations…. But I sort of agree with that statement. There must be a really strong evil in this world if we can think about denying marriage to two people who are in love.

How can we justify judging them? How can we justify breaking their hearts? It doesn’t HURT anyone! Oh, but they say it hurts children. What if a gay couple doesn’t want to have children? And even if they did, wouldn’t being in an orphanage hurt more? Or being shipped from foster home to foster home? Or being raised by celebrities? Or being raised by abusive parents? Or emotionally unavailable parents? Or parents who neither had the means or the ability to raise children?

Some say a gay couple should not be allowed to get married because they can’t produce children. So what about straight couples who can’t produce children? What about people who never want to have children? Should THEY not be allowed to get married? And for that matter, what about single parents? If having one mother and one father is such a big deal, why are they allowing children to be raised by just a mother or a father?

It’s funny, one of the first things I ever remember learning is that families come in all shapes and sizes (and you can thank Sesame Street for that). The typical “nuclear family” is not the ONLY kind of family. I have had this burned into my brain for the last 20 years. I don’t know why I could understand it as a four year old and some of our law makers cannot.

Our country was founded by people searching for religious freedom and that is why we are a Christian-only nation. That is why we base all of our laws on the Bible and have a very literal approach to everything it says. But wait! Remember JESUS? Remember how when he came he told us NOT to judge others (in Matthew 7, 1-5)? Remember how he seemed to preach love and acceptance for everyone? Remember how Christians DON’T keep Kosher or many of the other ancient Jewish laws but INSIST that Leviticus is the be all end all opinion on gay marriage, when half the Jews, who read the Torah as Christians do the New Testament (and Leviticus is a book of the Torah), don’t seem to care?

But we’re NOT a Christian-only nation. There’s a separation of church and state in this country so that we could keep these things from happening. It seems in the opinion of those willing to oppress gay marriage, we should also forbid atheists, agnostics and those of other religions outside the Judea-Christian realm to get married… but we don’t do that. If I could go out tomorrow and marry some random guy off the street who I didn’t love, why shouldn’t gay couples who ARE in love be allowed that right? How can we justify keeping love and happiness out of this world?

Once again we will climb onto our American high horse to tell the world that we know what liberty is. Liberty isn’t “the condition of being free from restriction or control”, nor is it “the right and power to act, believe, or express oneself in a manner of one's own choosing”…. Liberty is telling some of the nicest, most morally right people I will ever know, that they can’t get married because they’re gay. Because they were born that way and even though it wouldn’t hurt anyone more than any straight marriage hurts someone, in our OPINION, it’s just not right.

Our forefathers didn’t fight for this country 230 years ago for this.