90º Degrees to the Left: Four Letter Words

Yesterday the citizens of North Carolina voted in favor of Senate Bill 514, better known as Amendment 1, banning same sex marriage and domestic legal unions. This bill claims that only marriages between a man and a woman are valid, rendering all other unions, particularly same sex marriages illegal.

I am, up to a point, happy that these people did this to themselves. In their never-ending hate and bigotry towards homosexuals, they as usual, shot themselves in the foot.

This new amendment will strip couples that live together outside marriage to include their partners in their insurance as they have enjoyed up to today. This amendment might affect women from being protected by the law from domestic violence from their partner, since law enforcement agents will no longer see their mate as a spouse. According to an UNC study, the amendment might question the legality of “contractual agreements and equitable claims between unmarried couples together; and (2) child custody and visitation determinations.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey from 2009 there are at least 186,366 couples in North Carolina that live together but are not married, 91 percent of them are heterosexual. According to the latest Census, almost half of all marriages in North Carolina end in divorce. As of 2010 the total population in North Carolina was of 9,535,483. The population over the age of 18 was of 7,253,848 and 3,042,733 were over the age of 50. This means that approximately 4,211,115 were in what is commonly considered the "marrying" age. This amendment will affect approximately 372,732 people that are living out of wedlock and where only 33,546 are gay. I don’t think you need to be a mathematician to realize who will hurt the most by this new amendment… Isn’t it funny how hate can bite you in the face?

North Carolina has one of the highest divorce rates in the country, so it’s not as if they held the “sanctity” of marriage to such high standards. I will never be able to understand the opposition to marriage between two consenting adults, regardless of gender, race or religion. How would a marriage between two women or two men, negatively affect a marriage between a man and a woman? Are heterosexuals afraid that gay marriages might last longer than theirs and therefore it will look more valid or valued? Or are they afraid that same-sex marriages might last longer than theirs and therefore making gay marriage more “sanctified” than their own? I honestly believe that is what they fear. As it happens with most things, what motivates them are their own insecurities.

People in this country are using every vile excuse they can find to go back in time. They keep wishing to return to an era that besides of the golden era of Hollywood and of what can be considered the beginning of the African-American musical influence in what was up to that time an insipid musical repertoire of Caucasian America nothing else was as good as they fantasize it. Quite frankly, not even what I just mentioned was as good as they think, except for a handful of “classics.” The time in history where the Republican and Tea Party want to take this nation back to, was a very sad era where only the Caucasian Americans had rights; women, blacks, native Americans and the rest were considered sub-citizens. I refuse to accept this; we must fight this regression together as a country and as a people.

I rather live in a country where what matters most is the respect we have one another, where my neighbor can love whoever he or she chooses, where we all have the same right under the sun and under our Constitution. A place that constantly moves forward never to look back, unless it is not to repeat the same mistakes; but never wishing to go back and always moving forward. A country that puts its sight on a brighter future, where we are all the same regardless of sexual preferences, racial differences, religious beliefs or financial status. I know that we still have a long road ahead of us, but the road must always lie ahead of us, not behind us.

I am very proud of our Vice President Joe Biden, that so candidly spoke in favor of same-sex marriage this past Sunday on Meet the Press. He might have opened a can of worms, but may the Flying Spaghetti Monster bless him for it!

Perhaps it was the candor with which VP Biden expressed himself coupled with the fact that the world didn’t end after he offered his personal support that moved our President, Barack H. Obama, to openly support gay marriage today. I don’t know, all I can say is that for the first time in American history a President has had the guts to say this to the world and I've never been prouder of my president than I was today.