Does anyone else find it ironic that the man who used “I’m a uniter, not a divider” as a campaign slogan is calling for a constitutional amendment to ban certain types of unity? President Bush’s recent call for an amendment to ban same-sex marriage at the federal level and the hypocrisy of the arguments behind it are positively dizzying.
In a speech Monday, Bush said, “In this country, people are free to choose how they live their lives. In our free society, decisions about a fundamental social institution as marriage should be made by the people.” He also said the amendment should be added to protect marriage from “activist judges” who have overturned some state bans.
So, essentially, Bush is saying that because some people in some states decided they want gay marriage to be illegal, it should be illegal everywhere. Because that’s how freedom works.
Our president seems to be missing a couple of things here. First of all, banning gay marriage is a direct attack on freedom. When you take away a person’s right to choose whom they share their life with, that is the opposite of freedom.
Bush has stated that marriage should not depart from its “cultural, religious and natural roots.” The federal government, however, has no right nor jurisdiction to define which roots of marriage should be considered “natural.” According to the tradition and history of some religions, men are obligated to take more than one wife. When Bush claims that the practice of one man, one woman is natural, he is violating the church/state divide by upholding his personal, Christian values as inherently correct.
Further, the timing of Bush’s push for a gay marriage ban coincides with upcoming midterm elections in the Senate, leading a number of political commentators to wonder if the president is simply attempting to rally together conservative voters. Indeed, his lackluster support of this amendment is clearly a ploy to maintain some of his right-wing base. We can only imagine that Thomas Jefferson is rolling over in his grave at the thought that the president would amend our constitution in order to help his party maintain a Senate majority.
Obviously, the arguments for and against gay marriage will not go away anytime soon. At present, we simply question the purpose and intentions of passing a constitutional amendment. The U.S. Constitution should be a reflection of the ideals held most strongly by this country, and it is disturbing to think that values such as discrimination and political pandering could be included as part of our national belief system.
We urge the president to stop treating people’s lives as political weapons, and to step beyond his religious inclinations for one moment and look at the faces of the citizens truly affected by his proposal. We urge the Senate to vote no on this amendment.