Martinez 1 Abner Martinez Professor Mayreis-Voorhis English 1C October 17, 2013 Opposing Gay Marriage As our great nation

makes incredible strides to progress our society into an even more advanced society, we find that many of us that inhabit this country still cannot come to a mutual agreement over many life changing subjects. One of those many topics that remains plagued with constant controversy in support and opposition for it is the subject of gay marriage, a subject that for many reasons I cannot in any way give my support or approval of in any format. Due to my religious beliefs instilled inside my heart since I was a young child, combined with my views on science, and merging those ideals and beliefs together with my opinions on what is immoral as well as simple common sense, I cannot bring myself to support the gay marriage movement. The lesbian bisexual gay and transgender community uses a hypocritical and forceful intimidation to try and obligate everyone to support their cause. The gay marriage movement claims that they simply seek equal fair and just treatment like their heterosexual counterparts. But as a Christian heterosexual I cannot see how a group can demand equal and fair treatment by bullying, intimidating and denying the rights of others just to implement their own selfish gains. The gay marriage supporters have shown multiple times a massive lack of care for the well being of others. They will use any means necessary to advance their movement no matter what damage

Martinez 2 and loss it may cause to others. This was the case in two thousand and eight in the state of New Mexico when a Christian photography studio chose to not provide their photography services for a gay wedding. In this instance the Elane photography studio was found guilty of discrimination in a New Mexico court and was accused of acting in violation of human rights. As stated in CBN news article on the rightscoop.com when a gay person gains the right to enter into a legal union then a Christian business loses the right to disagree and is in turn discriminated against. This is exactly what happened in this case. The views and feelings of only one party were respected while the views and beliefs of the other party were denied and truly discriminated against. Every individual has the right to live their life as they please and make whatever decisions they choose to do and live with the consequences or repercussions of it. But just how a child cannot be forced into speaking a language it does not know, or how a dog cat not be forced into acting like a cat, why should Christians be forced into going against what they believe is immoral and against human nature as well as going against the will of the god that they believe in. As stated on rightscoop.com when we elevate a persons sexual preference to that of someones skin color or gender then all of a sudden its discrimination to refuse a client based on their sexual preferences. Every human being has a set of human rights that they are entitled to and it is the duty and responsibility of their nation to serve and protect those human rights in a just a fair manner. At no point should those rights be stripped or overlooked simply to benefit one person. As stated in the declaration of independence, all men are created equal. It does not state or list specific ethnicities or genders. Those human rights are given to all men and women regardless of their religious preference or sexual preference. The nave mistake that has been occurring with the gay marriage movement is comparing a sexual preference with the likes of a race or ethnicity. Our

Martinez 3 own ethnicity is not a choice and cannot be changed at any point in our lives just because of decisions that we make. There is no parental combination to create a person that will have homosexual preferences in the same way that nobody can create child that is genetically embedded to prefer motorcycles instead of cars. This support of social confusion is already contributing the strengthening of a movement that is leaving religious members of our society caught between a rock and a hard place. Currently there are fourteen states that have legally approved gay marriage; thirty five states have remained steadfast on maintaining a ban on gay marriage while the state of New Mexico has neither legally banned nor approved gay marriage. Slowly but almost surely more states are being overwhelmed with a social pressure to adopt the trending support for gay marriage with a complete disregard for respecting the rights and beliefs of those whose religious beliefs do not support the gay movement. These actions continue to paint a very vivid picture of a nation that is turning its back to the very beliefs that this nation was founded upon. As said in thenytimes.com article by Ross Douthat about this approach, it will lead to a more scorched earth approach to this battle, with less tolerance to the shrinking population of those who oppose it. This leads one to wonder what is going to happen if and when the day comes that the United States federal government decides to try and enact a legislative change that will force and require all fifty states in this nation to legalize gay marriage. Would this mean that a business owner with a religious moral that opposed gay marriage will be forced to go against their beliefs just to maintain a business and provide for their family or protect their beliefs and face a closure, fines or even incarceration just for standing up for what they believe in? At what point is a line drawn to protect those who for many years and generations have seen this country as a home with

Martinez 4 religious freedom protected by the government which allows you to freely practice, believe and uphold the teachings of whichever religion that you keep your faith in. I completely agree with Ross Douthat's statement in which he says that the future of religious liberties is going to depend on the magnanimity of gay marriage supporters. Instead of the media portraying people against gay marriage as the bad guys the media needs to turn on the light of truth and show how gay marriage supporters are practically running gay marriage opposes out of town as if they were members of some evil vindictive society like the klutz Klux Klan. Unfortunately the dark reality here is that the ones who are truly acting in that vial manner are the majority of gay marriage supporters who would rather see you fallen and everything taken from you simply because you do not agree with them. It is becoming extremely easy to see how quickly the media and society will turn against you when publicly declare that you are not nor will you ever lend your support to the gay marriage movement. This style of destructive behavior can be seen with the likes of the reaction towards child star Kirk Cameron when he came out in public and declared that homosexuality was unnatural and ultimately destructive as reported on huffingtonpost.com. I have to completely agree with Kirk and his feelings on this behavior. Regardless of what the media and popular masses of society declare and try to enforce and normal the reality of the matter is that homosexuality is not human nature nor is it normal. Some say that some animals are homosexual so its only normal for humans to do the same, but some animals eat their own children or abandon their children leaving them to fend for themselves yet that behavior is deemed unnatural human behavior when humans behave that way. Using selective truth is simply masquerading a

Martinez 5 lie and trying to embed it into our society is only building a deceitful and confusing future for the livelihood of the generations to come. Ultimately we must look at this matter in an unselfish manner and see all the repercussions that homosexuality and gay marriage support will unleash upon our nation. Like I said before everyone is free to live their life in their own way but to take away the rights of one just benefit another is not correct and never will be. Instead of forcing gay marriage upon our society we should be teaching compassion and understanding melded with a mutual respect for the beliefs of all people in this great nation. If you want to live a homosexual style life it is your choice and we should all respect that, but that should not give you the right to take away my rights and religious liberties just so that you can change the institution of marriage which is founded on a biblical foundation.

Martinez 6 Works Cited Cameron: Homosexuality is Unnatural huffingtonpost. CNN. Huffpost Gay Voices Web. 4 Mar. 2012 Religious Liberty and The Gay Marriage Endgame thenytimes. Evaluations, Ross Douthat Web. 26 June. 2013 Court rules Christian photographer guilty of discrimination over refusing gay ceremonies therightscoop. CBN news, The Right Scoop Web. 6 June. 2012