In the toughest of times, gay marriage is able yet again to creep into the headlines yet again thanks to former President Bill Clinton. I covered it this time because we noted that there were more Americans than we thought that had the same mentality as I do. And it is something that neither opponents or supporters of Proposition 8 would like…

Let me be clear, the person who influenced me with is Governor Jesse Ventura. I think it is he that came up with this concept.. We should be banning marriage outright and replacing all marriages that we have with civil unions!

I remember voicing out this position earlier and was rather ridiculed for it. But right now, following the blogs and comments on news site, our alternative does not sound so ridiculous anymore. Some of “my” people that would think of it being in terms of this being part of big government versus small government. The reason for my stance though is different.

I agree with people that claim that marriage is a religious and a cultural affair. That is why there are different rituals for different kind of marriages. Most Christians take their vow before a priest and are pronounced married. Russian Orthodox Christianity requires them to drink wine, while the Jews would have to break glasses. Hindus walk round a fire seven times to get married and Muslims tell it to their Imam. If marriage were the same shouldn’t the rituals be the same.

In fact, there are different laws for different kinds of groups within our country itself. Muslim men and some Christians are allowed to practice polygamy while it is a crime for others to do so. There are even some Tibetan customs that requires polyandry and are recognized in this country. Even some Christian sects allow all kinds of marriage and some allow only hetro-sexual marriage.

So why is there a ban on gay marriage? Three of the biggest religions in America are Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Majority of their sects consider homosexuality a sin. Hence, by forcing marriage as a whole to be forcefully recognized by all religions, we are infringing on their religious rights. By not allowing two Buddhists to marry in a Buddhist ceremony, we are also infringing on their rights as well.

So what should we do? Why in the world is the government coming into religion and telling us what we can and cannot believe in our religion? If we believe that marriage is to be only between a man and a woman., let us believe so. If we believe that marriage can be gay, let us believe so. Isn’t freedom of religion a tenet of American freedom.

But the government should grant us the rights of civil unions with our partners. We need them. For example, when a person dies without the will, a spouse should have the right to claim the property and the kids. As of now, it is the parent or the sibling of a gay individual that would get it. There is also the topic if divorce and separation settlements that gays cannot have.

So basically, we want the term marriage today to be converted into civil unions. Hence, the churches and mosques can have their religious rights protected and can kick gays out of their religion. Gays can enjoy equal rights while the religious institutions can ensure that gays not get married. Of course, the crazy right-wingers would go crazy with this and many gays would not be happy with it either. But as a whole, I think that this is a good compromise with both sides having their way.

Personally, I used to be against gay marriage. That changes while I was in the Army. I knew gay soldiers and I realized that they weren’t the sissy-boy perverts that I thought them out to be when I was younger. They are just like any other soldier, like any other human being. That is why I am okay with them marrying each other.

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