Friday, June 26, 2015

a gay old time...

 “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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