I generally try to stay away from political topics but I’m getting hammered by this one from all sides so I gotta vent.

The whole gay marriage thing. Sigh. What do you say, right?

I could go into a rant longer than I care to dedicate time to and discuss my feelings on how I support people and any alternative lifestyle they can come up with as long as I’m free to do my own thing. I could further go into the fact that everyone should be treated equal regardless of race, color, creed, or sexual orientation, but then, I don’t see a Straight Pride parade running down Broadway every year, and somehow I don’t think the Million Man March would have gone over so well if it was oriented toward caucasian interests. Do I think minorities push their interests and get away with it far more than they should? Sure. Am I against their rights to do that? No, as long as I get that same right.

So here I sit, in the middle of Portland, OR, where a county-level decision was made to start granting same-sex marriage licenses. People lined up around the block on the first day and now they’re renting out auditoriums to perform mass amounts of ceremonies.

I don’t understand a lot about this whole thing.

I don’t understand why a decision even needs to be made on this at a governmental level. If I want to go marry my cat, I should be able to. Okay, maybe we don’t go that far, but you see the point. It’s my business who I want to marry, and the separation of church and state should dictate that I can do that without legal interference. Sure, there are a couple exceptions to the rule - I mean, we need laws to stop things like inbreeding and genetic issues from cropping up - but by and large, that should be wide open.

I don’t understand why some people feel that gay marriage will destroy the meaning of marriage or remove any sanctity from that institution. Can someone tell me a definition of marriage that doesn’t involve two people who love each other forming a union? Isn’t that what these people are trying to do? Isn’t that the purpose of marriage?

I don’t understand why the county made the decision to go about this without consulting the public. If you’re going to change county ordinance or create new rules, we have this system in the US called “democracy.” That means to change the rules you have to do what we call “voting.” None of that seemed to happen, but here we are.

I don’t understand why it’s such a huge issue right now. It wasn’t until really recently I even heard all the hoopla about this whole thing. Why’s it such a gigantic case? I mean, it’s a presidential campaign point. Gimme a break, people. It’s not like it’s assisted suicide or anything. Heh.

I just… don’t… get it.

So, anyway, to all the gay people who wanna get married, you go for it. Good luck. It’s a free country.

That said, try to spread yourselves out while doing it. Just like I don’t want my city to be labeled the “Catholic capitol of the US” or the “Caucasian capitol of the US,” I don’t want to be labeled the “Gay Marriage capitol of the US.” The “Rose City” was quite enough for me, thanks.