Michael Mayo, a columnist for the Sun Sentinel, made sense in his April 1 column for the paper. In it, he states that "If two consenting adults want to get married, they should be allowed to do so, no matter the race, creed, color, religion or gender/sexual orientation of the two parties." He then expands on that, in that he is not including marriage between people and animals or adults with children. He also states that he does not mean "three, four or seven" people.
There are many people who are offended by the thought of gays and lesbians marrying. There are still people who object to interracial marriages. But disallowing gay marriage - or any other rights offered to any other group of consenting adults - is keeping the entire GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered) community at what can be considered the 3/5ths rule. Prior to the Civil War, and even in years afterward, African-Americans were counted as 3/5ths of a person. Even after blacks were legally considered "whole" people, many whites still thought of them as 3/5 of a white. Now, it seems, those in the GLBT community are frequently considered as 3/5 of a heterosexual person.
This is wrong. Mayo points out that if a same-sex couple gets married in the state of New York, then moves to Florida, that couple is not afforded the same rights as a male-and-female married couple would. I personally know one same-sex couple who married in Connecticut, then moved back to Florida. They had hyphenated their last name so that, rather than being "Jane A" and "Susan B," they were legally "Jane A-B" and "Susan B-A." They went to change their driver's licenses to reflect that change and were told that they would have to go to court here in Florida and pay for each of them to have their names changed. Had they been John and Susan, it would have been a non-issue.
I digress. To read Michael Mayo's entire column on Gay marriage, please go to http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-04-01/news/sfl-mayo-gay-marriage-20130401_1_gay-marriage-2008-state-constitutional-amendment-straight-married-couple.
One last thing: If this were your brother, sister, son, daughter, or parent, you'd want that person to have full rights. Please keep that in mind.
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