“If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.” -Leviticus 20:13.

This quote from the Bible is the moral argument used by opponents of gay marriage to justify their position. These people argue that the Bible is the definitive authority and represents the supreme words of God our creator.

Really?

Why are the same people unwilling to apply the same rule throughout? Why are these words in the Book of Timothy disregarded? “But I suffer a woman not to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but remain in silence.”

How can we pick and choose which of these beliefs to follow? This is exactly the point about what is wrong with the movement against marriage rights for gay Americans.

Why is it that we let religion think for us sometimes, but not all of the time?

Why is it that heterosexuals feel so entitled, that they feel they have the right to vote on whether or not certain people can’t fall in love and get married, but homosexuals don’t have the right to vote whether or not people are allowed to get divorced? They’re both “sins.”

As human beings we have an unprecedented ability to ignore the errors in our own logic. Is heterosexual marriage better than same sex marriage? Some people say that gays being able to marry would destroy the sanctity of marriage.

I say that celebrities like Kim Kardashian (72 day marriage) and Britney Spears (55 hour marriage) have done that already. About 50 percent of all marriages end in divorce.

New York is the most recent state to vote for equality and legalize same sex marriages. New York is also the largest state by far, at more than 19 million people, to legalize it and set the example for the rest of the country.

The State of New York has a reported 42,600 gay couples with only about 9,000 of these couples actually being legally married. That leaves approximately 33,600 potential wedding ceremonies that could happen in New York.

The average American wedding costs over $26,000. That average includes the lavishly expensive celebrity weddings, and the inexpensive courthouse ceremonies. This number does not include wedding gifts, airfare for people flying in to attend or people buying new clothes to go to the wedding. So the average $26,000 wedding cannot actually have a specific number attached to it for all of the extras.

The economy is an elaborate circle. Person A buys something and the money goes to Person B, who can now afford to buy from Person C, who buys from Person D, who can then pay the salary of Person A.

At the average of $26,000 a pop, that is a whole lot of money being pumped into the economy. That’s a lot more wedding planners that can get jobs and send their kids to college, and more florists that can worry a little less about paying their mortgages.

To put a little perspective on it, in California we have over 100,000 gay couples. You do the math.

It’s sad that we in California weren’t the ones to set the first major example of anti-discrimination nationwide. In fact we’ve done quite the opposite. In 2008, Proposition 8 stated in television ads that it was against the teaching of gay marriage in schools.

Instead of actually reading the proposition we proved our stereotype of being “dumb Americans” and didn’t bother to read the prop and see that all it was doing was defining marriage as being between a man and a woman. The proposition had nothing to do with schools, but we believed whatever the TV told us.

Despite a campaign against Prop 8, we were so scared of having to actually talk to our children with the threat of gay marriage being taught in schools, that we didn’t bother getting informed by reading the prop for ourselves and see that it actually just banned gay marriage itself. Remember to always read before you vote and/or sign petitions, and don’t believe what you hear or see on TV.

The politicians that come out against gay marriage so adamantly are showing that they’re afraid of dealing with the real issues. Ask your politicians that are supporting this discrimination how you are going to pay for college. That’s what they’re really afraid of.

The gay marriage issue is a smoke screen so people won’t ask them the real questions.

Despite claiming to be free thinkers, why are we so reluctant to see through the fear and hatred that was passed down through the generations, and continue to pass it to our children?

Gays being allowed to marry does not affect heterosexual people whatsoever, except that every once in a while they’ll actually have to talk to their child and say that sometimes a boy likes a boy and a girl likes a girl.