Marriage equality

I have always believed in marriage equality. I have always believed that marriage should be allowed between two consenting adults, no matter what the individual characteristics of the people involved. I have always intended to get married, and have always felt that everyone should have the opportunity, if that was what they choose. I have supported politicians that support marriage equality. I have never understood the push against marriage equality, except from a religious standpoint. Since I don’t believe that laws should be created based on religion, I have never understood why the progress has been so slow. I have always felt that all couples, heterosexual or otherwise should be able to have the benefits of marriage. The legal benefits of marriage give couple many rights, and I have always felt that all couples should be able to reap these benefits.

There are many arguments against marriage equality, all seemingly rooted in religion. Some of these arguments are that gay marriage is “unnatural,” or that since they cannot have children, they should not be able to get married. I feel like if these are the standards of our society, there should be a problem with processed foods or infertile couples. Since neither of those are the case, I think that these arguments are really based in something else.

Reading “marriage will never set us free” was very interesting to me, because I hadn’t thought about the benefits of marriage critically before. I have seen marriage as a goal that everyone should aspire to. Legally, marriage is pushed onto people as something that people must have, for all of the benefits not given to couples that aren’t married. I have started questioning the massive expense of a wedding, to be a couple just like how the relationship functioned prior to the marriage. I feel like most of the traditions involved in weddings themselves are outdated, and mainly done for guests, not the couple. The benefits are designed to persuade couples into getting married, not because that’s a necessary thing to do.