Growing up, this generation has been told that America is a place where all people are equal and anything is possible.
We look to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and countless Supreme Court cases to support this bold claim. However, I am here to refute this claim. Before I am judged, please hear me out.
In high-school science class we learned about Sir Isaac Newton and his three laws of motion. Newton’s first law of motion, which states an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an outside force, is applicable to the gay-marriage movement.
In this case, the object is the movement to grant homosexuals the right to marry. This movement is being spread across the United States — the latest state to jump on the bandwagon is New York.
Their State Assembly passed a bill that legalizes same sex marriage with an overwhelming vote of 89 to 52 on May 12. The bill is now headed to the New York State Senate, which is closely divided on this controversial issue.
Arizona residents probably think, “Why does this matter to me? We already decided this issue last November. Plus, New York is 3,000 miles away.” Well, we have extended Arizona’s disrespect of homosexuals beyond our state borders.
In this case, the outside force is a movement to protect the sanctity of marriage or, to be blunt, deny equality of rights to homosexuals.
A conservative Arizona-based lobbyist group, the Alliance Defense Fund, is currently slowing the same-sex marriage movement. It is currently active in New York as an outside force halting the progressive nature of society.
The idea that Arizona voters passed a proposition last November defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman thereby outlawing gay marriage is sickening. Now we have decided to take hate and discrimination to the other side of the country.
Must we continue to deny rights to minority groups? Will social policy continue to be the tyranny of the majority? For Newton’s first law of motion to remain true, we must bring the voices of inequality to a screeching halt.
The Declaration of Independence states, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
If all men are created equal, then homosexuals should not be denied the right of marriage. If our Creator endows men with these rights, religious beliefs should not be a reason to oppose same sex marriage.
I hope it is becoming clear why I do not believe America is a place where all things are possible yet.
It is true this nation has more opportunities than nearly every other nation on this planet, but we are not out of the woods yet. Not until every person has equal rights can we back this claim up.
Andrew can be reached at andrew.hedlund@asu.edu
