
Is there a gay marriage agenda? I suppose. I'm not going to take this space to argue about the morality or the immorality of gay marriage. I will save my two cents on that and possibly share at another date. At the moment, I just want to look at culture.
Culture could be defined as the current that moves a civilization, the direction that it is moving in, the feelings and thoughts of a lot of people, expressed well by a few, and supported willingly by the rest. Culturally speaking, books are on the way out and Youtube videos are on the way in. Culture is a kind of litmus test for the direction of a civilization.
Take two examples of the pop culture relating to homosexuality; both examples present people who are gay and the horribly difficult situation that so many confront with a new face that is real, compassionate, hip and sexy.

Take Me to Church by Hoozier is another example; a great beat and pounding lyrics paired with a phenomenally well done music video made the song an instant hit. The music video's basic storyline is the sexual drama between two men. The image of two men kissing would have been completely outlawed a century ago, a half century ago, a generation ago. The more an image is employed, the less foreign it becomes. Nobody wants lovers to be apart from each other; and we can all agree on that.
I would like to be able to say that this "culture war" - so to speak - is barking up the wrong tree. I would like to be able to say that no one claims that gays are less than human, that they have no feelings, that they don't feel emotion, hardship or suffering. So trying to prove that gays are people is really a battle that has already been won, a battle that doesn't need to be fought.
But that is not true.

If all it took for me to support gay marriage was meeting a nice, normal gay person, I would already support gay marriage. But that's not what it takes. That will never be what it takes.
Why?
Each and every person is valuable. Feels pain. Suffers. Needs to be loved. Needs to be understood and listened to and valued. If I could have my way, I would be able to look into the eyes of every person that I meet and say without words, "It is good that you exist. It is good. It is very, very good that you exist."
So a couple conclusions. I do not like the direction that the whole debate is taking. People are not defined by their sexuality: gay, lesbian, straight or anything else. People are people, valuable across the board, and they deserve love. It is beneath our dignity to identify our value with our sexual orientation. We've got to separate the person from their behavior. Woefully ill-informed though probably well-meaning people are at least partially to blame for the direction of the debate, reducing people to their sexual orientation and condemning them based on it.
I'd say it's about time we shoulder some responsibility here.

That’s the kind of toleration our generation needs.
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