...to gay activists who are not gay, or to gays who don't have any plans or desire to legally marry? It seems disproportionately important considering that gays are only about 3-5% of the population. For example until recently women were barred from serving in combat, however the amount of attention that issue was given was relatively minor, despite women being 51% of the population. Why is this?
Why was interracial marriage such an important issue to activists who were not in interracial relationships or to interracial couples who didn't have any plans or desire to legally marry?
How is that NOT significant, especially where the Constitutional rights of a minority group are concerned? There are 300+ million people living in America; 4% of that is not an insignificant number of people.
Well clearly it is important to those homosexual couples who have been legally married that the U.S. government through DOMA will not recognize. Other than that- why was it important to people that bans on inter-racial marriage be ended? Why was it important to jews and Catholic northerners that blacks be given the vote in the South? Why are the rights of any single person important to another person? Why is your right to post here important?
Because the minority is protected from the majority. Just because the majority does not like something does not mean that it should not be allowed. Its we the people, not we in the majority.
It is not an important issue but it conveniently gets air time from other real important matters . Every time you see a politician debating about marriages think that they could spent that time prosecuting banksters or protecting the media from wiretapping.
Issues will come and go but treating human beings as human beings will abide forever. Whether or not there is a creator or a continuing evolution behind the grand scheme of things; equal rights must extend from all - to all; or aforementioned all will be diminished and falter as a result. The future demands us to learn from history or be doomed to repeat it - so choose wisely or as the Emperor put it, "You will pay the price for your lack of vision."
It seems equally valid to ask why being against the ability of 3% of the population to marry is such a big issue for people such as yourself. As for why? I guess I'm not the one being asked to answer, but 3-5% is still millions of people, and most people have family or friends who are gay. I know I've created many an advocate simply by being who I am, with family and friends wanting to see me happy and celebrate a marriage with me to my partner of 7 years. To them, it's no different, they care about me, so they care about gay marriage... including people who used to be against it before they knew about me.
Speaking only for myself--a straight white married guy--my position in favor of marriage equality has nothing whatsoever to do with "gay rights" and everything to do with the role of government in a nation of free men.
