The state of Wyoming has had frequent issues with same sex marriage and civil unions over the last five years. Many bills that would either define marriage as between a man and a woman or bar recognition of marriages of this kind in other states have been pushed through some part of the Wyoming legislative body.
Heck, discomfort runs so deeply in Wyoming that even former Wyoming Senate candidate Liz Cheney stopped talking to her sister, Mary Cheney, who is married to wife Heather Poe, for months after an argument of what marriage means. Does the fact that she’s “former” make a point anywhere?
The issue has come up once again, since Wyoming House Representative Cathy Connolly (D) is pushing legislation that would replace our state’s current definition of a marriage from a civil contract between a man and a woman, to a civil contract between two people. All mention of sex taken out.
The seemingly simple distinction would allow same sex couples to enjoy civil unions and its legal benefits.
In fact she wants to keep religious affiliation completely out of the picture to avoid defiling any Christians’ good conscience about using the M-word in relation to same sex couples.
There really are no two sides to this argument, rather black and white mixed into gray areas that lack distinction. In fact, argumentation against same sex marriage sounds similarly flawed as the argument employed by Ken Ham during the Creationism vs. Evolution debate about a week ago.
While his opponent, Bill Nye (yes, the Science Guy), continued to make well-reasoned, scientific claims, Ham just used the Bible like a magic bullet to shoot down anything he disagreed with.
And just like Ham, same sex marriage/union opponents swing around the Bible to make their claims as well. Their favorite arguments usually stem from Leviticus.
When you actually read Leviticus, it is a bunch of rules on who you should not sleep with—most of them telling you not to commit incest. Basic common sense, especially if you understand that incest leads to genetic degradation of the DNA pool and an increase in unfavorable mutations. Oh wait, I mean sins and demons and Beelzebub.
Anyway, Leviticus 18:18 states that you should not have sex with your wife’s sister… while the wife is still alive. Looks like the writer gave himself a little loophole here. Oh and the line that equality-bashers love the most: Levi 18:22 where it says “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.” So if one follows the Bible to the letter, then lesbians are automatically excluded from the bashing.
But of course, citing Leviticus is still not a valid argument. Instead, we should face the facts. Over the summer, bans on same sex marriage and Prop 8 have been found unconstitutional. Equal civil union status for same sex couples is a citizen right of theirs. It’s called equality—a word the legislation of the Equality State might want to ponder.
And to those who are afraid that same sex couples will somehow undermine and pervert their marriage: Why don’t you stop worrying about that and for goodness’ sake stop being so obsessed what same sex couples do in the bedroom. It’s none of your business and frankly, it’s perverted.
