“What has been will be again,what has been done will be done
again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which
one can say,'Look! This is something new'? It was here already, long
ago; it was here before our time.”
-Ecclesiastes
1:9-10
So the Supreme Court
has made it's decision in the United States regarding gay marriage
and the decision is a barely passing (5-4 in favor) affirmation. Gay
marriage is now legal, everywhere in the US. So we will have endless
news stories to come, endless controversies about what this person
said, about people's views concerning this and that. Get ready for
the deluge.
This has been a
controversial subject for many years. Of course, it hasn't been that
big of a controversy across the entire world. In Canada, for
instance, gay marriage has now been legal for a decade. The
Netherlands allowed civil marriage of same sex couples as early as
2001. Denmark allowed registered partnerships for same sex couples
all the way back in 1989, not the same thing as marriage but
certainly progressive for the end of the 80's.
If you follow
history far enough back you will see that kingdoms in various time
periods engaged in same gender relationships long before the SCOTUS
decided it was ok, by a slim margin. The United States is a
relatively young nation with very few notches on her belt. But she
sure likes to go around puffing out her cheeks as if she is the talk
of the town, just hit the game winning run, and just impressed all
the top dogs doesn't she? This debate has been around for many
years.
Ancient Greece had
homosexual relationships, so did ancient Rome. Some of the Roman
emperors were in same gender relationships. The same is also true of
women in ancient China during the Ming Dynasty. There is also some
evidence of this existing among Native Americans. Now not all these
examples were marriages, some were commitments, relationships of
varying degrees, some were legally binding and some were not, but the
idea is that this has been around for quite some time.
The idea is not new,
you can put a “legal” or “illegal” status on it but the
concept behind it is certainly not new. We keep taking ideas and
concepts, controversial or no, and making them new when they are not.
Do me a favor,
whatever your take on the ruling, on the concept of same sex
marriage, approach it with respect and with grace for whomever you
discuss it with, that's the right way to enter a conversation about
any subject. Take it down a few notches. And as far as the SCOTUS?
They don't really run my fantasy league so I'm not too worried about
whether or not I agree with their rulings.
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