I am, above all else, a firm believer in the rights of individuals. I believe such rights are sacred and must be protected at all costs, even when it means decreased security. The right to believe as you wish and act on your beliefs in a way not harmful to others is as sacred a right as any other. What you do not have a right to do, however, is impose your beliefs on others. That is what the Federal Marriage Amendment is. It is a gross imposition on the beliefs and rights of at least thirty million Americans, and likely a lot closer to one hundred fifty million, when you take into account all of the straight people who approve of gay marriage. One of the core principles of our system of government is to prevent the will of the majority from trampling on the rights of the minority. That is at least one of the reasons for the seperation of church and state. The FMA flies in the face of every principle this country was founded on.

Marriage as a religious sacrament must be left to the individual to celebrate as he or she wishes. That is not the business of government in any form or fashion. Marriage, as defined by the government, should be nothing more than a civil contract between two individuals (regardless of sex, orientation, race, etc.) with the purpose of bestowing the appropriate legal rights and responsibilities on the couple involved. The current definition of marriage, in my opinion, is already a direct violation of the establishment clause of the first amendment, being rooted in religious beliefs and not any proper logical basis.

To those who oppose gay marriage, I say, as a friend of mine recently said when the Newsweek magazine he was holding drew a snide remark from a security gaurd at the Norfolk federal building, "If you don't want to marry a gay person, you don't have to!" That is the only true and proper way to handle religious beliefs. Believe as you wish and act as you believe, and allow others the freedom to do the same.