In the United States’ current political turmoil, Democrats and Republicans never seem to able to compromise, which leads to an extremely clogged and inefficient government. I firmly believe that the illegalization of gay marriage results from this clogging and the lack of tolerance that plagues the majority of America. Gay marriage can be considered a special case as it falls within the realm of social issues but is still hindered by political interference. Before facing this issue, we must ask ourselves if our actions are really justified or morally permissible. Is it morally permissible to infringe upon someone’s right to marriage? Are we justified in forcing our religion on other people?

As far as the first question goes, I believe that the maximization of human rights ought to be upheld as valuable by every government, drawing the line of course at rights that cause collateral damage to society. Gay marriage causes no collateral damage since it does not infringe upon the rights of other individuals today’s society. However, many intolerant and ignorant people argue that simply living in close proximity with homosexuals disgusts them because of their homophobic conditioning; thus, openly expressed homosexuality infringes upon their right to pursue happiness to its greatest extent. While we can attempt to teach tolerance to these people, we cannot justify ourselves in pushing our own beliefs upon them.
Many legalized entities disgust me personally, such as people driving unnecessarily massive cars for no practical reason other than to uphold status symbols, increase their carbon footprint, and perpetuate global warming. Why then, from an ignorant American’s standpoint, should we allow for any “disgusting” entities to be legalized in our country? The answer is that it’s absolutely impossible to rid society of all controversial entities; therefore, we must all learn to accept one another’s chosen practices, even if we don’t agree with them.

The Catholic Church, with its large sums of money, remains the strongest opponent against same-sex marriage. I would like to make it clear that I’m in no way bashing Catholicism or every Catholic; I am simply using the church as an example in order to further argue my point. Christianity tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves, whether or not they are gay; therefore, the Catholic Church’s opposition is preposterous according to the Bible. However, since a large number of Catholics seem to differentiate between belief and action, we must still deal with some of their members’ lack of tolerance which has caused the undeniably evil “God Hates Fags” movement that has swept through many American funerals, saddening already grieving people. This, along with the illegalization of gay marriage, needs to stop now if we wish to retain any amount of dignity as a country. There is no moral ground to stand upon when pushing beliefs on others, who probably are not even of the same religion. Thus, I would like to ask the majority of America to peek out from their shells of absolute ignorance and allow for people to make their own, harmless decisions.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to argue against “just because”, which tends to be the answer to the question “why are you opposed to gay marriage?”. However, people must learn tolerance if we ever hope to pull ourselves out of this gross, clogged, and inefficient political system. If we can’t bring ourselves to allow others enjoy a happy marriage, then we will never be able to band together and move forward as a country. Gay marriage represents more than just the happiness of couples world-wide, it represents an immediate issue that we as US citizens absolutely need to resolve in order to help fix our political mindsets. Without the miniscule tolerance necessary to allow for same-sex marriage, we will remain a tumultuous, uncompromising, and abusive country.