And Then There Were Four

Yesterday Vermont became the fourth state in the US to legalize same-sex marriage, only a few days after Iowa announced that it would recognize same-sex marriages. That makes 8% of the US, if we give states equal percentages. (Questionable statistics make me feel safe. What about you?)

How to frame the debate on same-sex marriage: is it a moral issue? Is it a religious issue? Or civil rights? And how come all sides say they're defending their right to marriage?

I go to church two to three times a week, so I have ample opportunities to survey the Bay-area-East-Asian-young-and-college-educated Christian community. And people use the Bible to defend both "marriage equality" and "same sex marriage"-- God doesn't tell us to foist our Christian morality on non-Christians; if we believe its wrong, we should not allow people to continue in sin; don't confuse your culture with what the Bible actually says, the church was wrong when it defended anti-miscegenation laws, too; and so on and so on. A relatively small, relatively homogenous community, using the same text comes up with different answers. Whatever the opinion on same-sex marriage, we seem to be able to use the Bible to defend our position. I argue that this is an issue of framing, not the confusing-ness of the Bible.

I frame it as a civil rights issue. The LGBTQ community is a distinct community, and we deserve the right to self determination, just like any other community. Who knows us better than we do, aside from God, if you believe in him, too?