From the Carroll County Times

Opinion

Civil Rights Belong To Everyone

By Tom Zirpoli
Columnist

February 22, 2006

My initial feeling on the gay marriage issue is who cares and why is it anyone's business?

After all, if two people want to form a legal union, especially for the purposes of caring for adopted children or each other in their old age, who are we or our government to tell them they can't?

Conservatives are pushing the idea that gay marriage, or the legal union between two men or two women, threatens the institution of marriage defined as a union between one man and one woman.

My wife and I will celebrate 25 years of marriage this year. For each of us, it is our first marriage and, we hope, our last.

We have several gay friends and, I have to say, we have never felt that our marriage was threatened by their love for their partners. Nor have we ever felt that we needed protection from them.

Like most marriages, we have had our challenges. But I can't remember ever saying to my wife, "You know, this is all our gay friends' fault."

Most politicians couldn't care less about the gay marriage issue except that, like the issue of terrorism, it is used to scare people into voting for them. Vote for candidate X and he or she will protect us from terrorism and gay marriage.

But the real question is who will protect us from candidate X as he or she chips away at our privacy and freedom from government intrusion?

Moreover, who are we straight people to lecture anyone on the institution of marriage? When it comes to marriage between one man and one woman, straight folks have a failure rate of over 50 percent and the ability to exchange spouses as casually, and sometimes as frequently, as buying a new car.

Why is it that a straight man or woman can remarry as frequently as they wish, but when a gay person wants to marry or form a legal union with a lifelong partner, this act becomes a threat to our culture or moral values?

I don't have a problem with couples who divorce, but if the government wants to save the institution of marriage by passing laws prohibiting gays from marrying for the first time, will they soon be passing laws prohibiting straight people from marrying a second or third time? After all, what does more damage to the institution of marriage, and the lives of millions of young children, than divorce?

The problem with giving the government more power is that the government doesn't know when to stop.

I asked earlier, who cares and why is it anyone's business? But, of course, we should care because it is our business and it is our government.

Every American citizen should be interested in protecting the civil rights and liberties of all Americans. If we don't pay attention when the government tries to remove the freedom and liberties of others, we all become less free and our democracy diminished.

A straight friend serves on the board of a gay rights group. When he was asked why he served on a gay rights board since he is not gay, my friend responded, "Well, I'm not black either, but I believe in protecting the civil rights of blacks."

I, too, believe in protecting the civil rights of each American citizen so that we all can live free from government intrusion into our private lives. And when we protect the civil rights of minority groups, like gays, we protect our own freedoms and liberties.

The fight for civil rights has never been, nor should be as some now suggest, a popularity contest for voters. If it were, blacks would still not have the right to vote, interracial marriage would still be illegal in most states, minority religions would not be allowed to practice their faith and students with disabilities would still be shut out of public schools.

Yes, minorities have rights, even if the majority disagrees. This concept is the very foundation of our democracy.

And just because straight people are in the majority doesn't mean they have the moral high ground or all the answers about marriage.

Indeed, the data suggests otherwise.

Tom Zirpoli writes from Westminster. His column appears Wednesdays. E-mail him at: tzirpoli@mcdaniel.edu