I don’t give a lot of thought to gay rights. I don’t mean that as a criticism or a condemnation, it’s really just a matter of fact. It’s just not something I think about all that much, mostly because there’s such an obvious resolution: there should be no gay rights.
*gasp*
But then I continue: there should be no gay rights. There should be no straight rights. There should just be rights. Simple, no?
I have gay friends and colleagues…a few if I really think hard about it (it again not being something I often consider). In truth they are not close friends and colleagues, but that has little to do with their sexual orientation and everything to do with the vagaries of our lives and the way things wash out. I might just as easily say that I am not close friends with any Peruvians as the circumstances of that detail are in basics the same.
All of this prelude leads me up to this morning, tying my shoes in preparation for work, sitting on the couch in my living room with the TV turned to the news only vaguely holding my attention. A teaser for an upcoming report came on and flitted through my ear. “The state of ….voting on ….may allow gay marriage by the end of…”
I lifted my head only slightly, evening my knots. I hadn’t heard the particulars but I’d gotten the gist. Some state somewhere was on the verge of legalizing gay marriage. The newscaster sounded a little triumphant, as if it was another win for good. And it is.
But is it?
As I sat there, hands on knees and poised to stand, I was struck by an overwhelming feeling of sadness. Not sadness like depression, but sadness like when you see a high school football star 20 years past his prime and still wearing his letterman jacket, puffing out his chest. You shake your head with a slight smirk and think to yourself, “Now that’s just SAD.” And it was in this frame of mind that I turned off the TV and carried my thoughts with me to the car.
It IS sad…because it’s all just so silly. With everything else that goes on in the world, the starvation, the pollution, the killing and disease, THIS is what we as a society choose to spend more than even a second on? This is what there has ever once been heated debate over? But WHO CARES? Marry, don’t marry, whatever you want! Whatever anyone wants, why must we trouble ourselves with it? In a world as harsh as this one, shouldn’t anyone have the opportunity to be happy or not as they choose? It’s all just so little and SAD to even think about.
I already feel guilty for making as part of my justification, the fact that the world is harsh and life is filled with greater anguishes. Even without those true facts, the debate over gay rights is still so very vey sad and inconsequential.
Equal rights, good and bad, for everyone. End of story and just please don’t bother yourself with such trivialities any longer. Now go back unto the world and do something of consequence.