The state of Washington has moved one step closer to recognizing same-sex marriages. The House recently voted to give same-sex couples who are legally married in another state recognition as “domestic partners, which has already been the law of the state since 2009.
Rep. Lauire Jinkins (D-Tacoma) says, “This is not a big deal – we are not extending any new rights. It says if you have a marriage in another state, you get a domestic partnership here. You don’t get marriage here – you get a domestic partnership.”
As I have said in the past, I do like living here in the Pacific Northwest, but sometimes being a conservative on the left coast can be a bit frustrating. This is one of those examples. Couple this with President Obama refusing to enforce the rule of law (DOMA), and I am sure that it won’t be long before the state of Washington allows same-sex couples to have legal marriages.
Honestly, I really do not have problems with grating same-sex couples protection under the law with domestic partner status. This gives each member some protection regarding property rights and medical issues. If you are involved in a long-term committed relationship and have intertwined your life with someone else (financial, medical, etc.) you do deserve some sort of recognition and protection.
But marriage is off limits for me. I consider myself a religious man and have been for most of my sundown side of 40 years. God considers homosexuality an abomination so there is no way that He could recognized marriage between two individuals of the same sex. Since I firmly believe that marriage is a union between and man and woman in the eyes of God, it is not possible for me to recognize the marriage of two same-sex individuals. It does not matter to me if you call me closed-minded. It is the way that I feel and that will not change.
The toughest part of this for me is when the time comes and same-sex marriage is an accepted status, is that I will be the one who has to conform, not them. I will have no legal recourse. If I own apartment buildings I will be required to rent to them even though it is against my religious and moral convictions. If I do try to deny them the apartment, I will get taken to court. I could be forced to sell even though I may not want to. That does not seem right to me. At some point in time conservatives must stop drawing lines in the sand that erased by the changing direction of the wind. There comes a point where we must stand firm.
There are many who claim denying gays things like marriage is a violation of their civil right, but they are wrong. Rights are given to us by God and reaffirmed by the Constitution of the United States. In both cases gay rights are not recognized. With respect to God, there are several passages in the Bible that are fairly clear what He intended. Genesis 2:23-24 states; “The man said, ‘this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh’...For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be untied to his wife and the will become on flesh.” While it doesn’t directly say "…be united with a woman”, the term wife has always been attributed to the female member of the marriage. As for the civil rights and the Constitution the 14th and 15th Amendments were written and passed to grant rights to people of color. The 19th Amendment granted voting rights to women. And the 24th the Amendment fixed loopholes (i.e. poll taxes) in the previous “rights” Amendments. So far, sexual orientation has not been covered. Even if a 28th were to be passed, it would still against God’s laws.
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