Finally, the day has come! For as forward thinking the United States is, its justice system holds it back at times, and this is one of those times. Only 20 countries on the entire planet have legalized gay marriage, and now America is up there with the pack, becoming number 21. Given that America has been thinking this culturally for years, I can honestly say that it’s probably 5 to 10 years too late, perhaps more. The first countries to legalize gay marriage were Canada and Spain in 2005, so I guess that means if the people had their way, America would’ve been one of the first.
Gay Marriage is Now Legal in All 50 States in America!
The Internet has blown up over this news, with jubilant cheers, honest opinions, as well as downright negative outlooks on what this news will bring to America. Without the obvious rant against the problem that persists among the religious that believes that changes like this are actually bad news and will spell (allegedly) disastrous consequences, and what these beliefs could fundamentally mean for those people and the people and institutions that they influence, I think that all of this is great news in general. Not only for America as well as the gay community, but for gay communities across the World. Though many Americans still believe the United States is the leader of the free world, there is still a good point to be made that its influence is still very strong. Decisions that America makes are heard and, if not respected, at the very least analyzed.
The Supreme Court of the United States made this decision today, Friday the 26th of June, in a 5-4 ruling. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote the majority opinion, stating, “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and the family.” Many of marriages legal benefits will now be available to the gay community, something that they have long sought after. Another big deal about this is that the new decision will require other states to endorse marriage licenses from other states. So individually, states will not be able to get around this law by disallowing marriage licences from other states to hold up in their own.
Today marks a new era for America, as this debate is finally settled. Moving on to other, admittedly more important topics (statistically speaking such as hunger, housing, poverty, etc), will be an interesting journey for America. One by one the social structures of man that are oppressive seem to fall beneath the Justice system of America. But can we agree that it will be enough in the end? How long will this all take? The human race has an expiration date, and fixing social issues are certainly important, but I have an odd feeling that they’re somehow just standing in the way of the most important issues; issues of life and death for the human race are the issues that we choose not to tackle. Maybe the social issues have to be fixed before we can move onto more important discussions.
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