#ny4m

I was approached by the Yahoo! Contributor Network to write an article about how the passage of the Marriage Equality Act in New York has affected me, so I did. Check it.

DISCLAIMER: This piece is about a very heated public issue. These are my opinions and only my own. If you feel offended, let me know.

Friday, as I hope you all know, a law was passed in New York State making gay marriage legal effective 24 July, 2011. First off, wow. That is great news and congratulations to everyone that will be affected by this, ie, homosexual men and women. That is a huge victory for civil rights and hopefully more states will follow New York's example in passing similar bills and will pressure President Obama to pass a similar federal law.

Personally, I think it is sad and embarrassing that it took this long to make gay marriage legal. Regardless of your religious affiliation, gay marriage should be a fundamental right. Historians will laugh at us in one hundred years much like we laugh at the amount of rights that blacks held a mere 150 years ago in this country. It's appalling to me that this is still an issue in 2011. The fact that we are involved in three foreign wars in this country but had to fight that hard for gay men and women to be able to marry legally is disturbing and pathetic. I'm glad that it's behind us (at least in New York) and that other issues can be brought to the front of everyone's minds.

I couldn't help but notice the Facebook statuses and tweets roll in while watching the live stream of the vote. A lot of them were positive, which was awesome. Like I said, I'm happy for these people. Unfortunately, the bad sentiments stood out even more. I saw the act of homosexuality compared to the act of rape, and gay men compared to rapists. I saw Bible verses thrown out to defend the religious opposition to gay marriage.

One: homosexuality is not a choice. Tyler Clementi didn't choose to be a homosexual. It is not done to spite God or anyone else. It is how people are born. If you think it is you are clearly prejudiced and a bigot.

Two: homosexuality is as natural as heterosexuality. Hundreds of species have been observed exhibiting homosexual behavior. The fact that this is not well established and publicly known bothers me.

Three: God and Christianity have nothing to do with the US government and its laws. Yes, our government is built on Judeo-Christian values. Yes, the Founding Fathers were Christian (to an extent). This is not 1700s America. This is 2011. Black people, gays, Muslims and otherwise have rights that they did not have over 200 years ago, and that's a good thing. You have no right to force your religious beliefs on others and your religious affiliation should not affect whether or not a small group of people can legally marry.

Four: NONE OF THIS WILL AFFECT YOU DIRECTLY. Gays will not all of a sudden start having sex in front of your children because they are now married. They will get the title they want. You will get to stop hearing about people rallying for gay marriage. Nobody will think this is a big deal in 20 years. People will not die, riots will not break out, another 9/11 will not happen because gay people can get married. 

Way to go New York for passing Marriage Equality! You're already a huge tourist destination, and now you'll probably be the #1 destination for gay and lesbian couples seeking to get married. Pocket those pink dollars!

New Jersey? Well the Democraps here blew their chance in 2009, as they were too afraid it would cost them their seats in the mid-term elections.

Now with Gov Chris Christie imposing his Catholic beliefs, we won't see full Marriage Equality for another 3-7 years (the later if he should be re-elected).