By Christoper Veeder
During the November elections there will be a vote on an amendment concerning same-sex marriage. By voting no future generations could change the laws about same-sex marriage. By voting yes it puts the amendment on the state constitution and makes it very difficult to change.
With younger people becoming more and more accepting of each other, this amendment will hurt how young people will be living in the future. 70% of people 20 years and younger are in support of same-sex marriage, that number is expected to climb over the next few years according to gallop poll. That shows that when younger people become leaders of our state and communities we are going to want to let people have the basic human right to marry the person they love. If this passes, people will not have that right.
This amendment will not only put people’s future at risk, but will even put the state of Minnesota at a huge disadvantage compared to other states. Six states allow same-sex marriage: Washington, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and New Hampshire. In the next few years many others are expected to legalize same-sex marriage. If Minnesota wants to move forward and become a modern state we must stop this amendment. States, communities, countries are all moving toward human equality; but people in this state are holding us back.
People of faith say that the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community is not an act of God’s and is very unreligious. I say that it is very much so an act of God’s. The torah, the bible, and other holy books say that we are images of our creator(s) and that we should not judge each other on who we are. There are religious bodies that have come out to support the LGBT community. The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a Christian church that has came out and open its doors in support of the LGBT community. It has done so by providing educational programs for LGBT people, teaching them that it is fine to be who they are and has ordained many openly gay ministers. Local rabbis have said that they do not support the marriage amendment and urge “all Minnesotans of conscience and faith” to vote against the amendment.
By voting no for this amendment, people are not changing anything. Currently there is a law in Minnesota called the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits same-sex marriage already. Voting no does not mean that same-sex marriage will be legal or that you even support it, but voting no will allow young people to make the changes necessary in our state as we take the reins and become leaders of Minnesota. Voting yes on the amendment will put it onto the constitution and will greatly hurt our future.
Supporters of the amendment say that it needs to be on the constitution because we need to maintain the traditional family in Minnesota. As we like to think that the traditional family is made up of a husband, a wife (who will stay together for ever) and two or three kids. The truth is that on average 40% of people will get divorce according to divorcerate.org. Unfortunately broken families are becoming more of an image traditional family. Yet people say that same-sex families will destroy the meaning of marriage and family. That is simply not the case. The divorce rate for same-sex marriages is tremendously lower. Also, overall families with same-sex parents make wiser decisions than families with heterosexual parents. 69% of homosexual parents have a college degree before they get married, according to gaymarriage.lifetips.com.
It is not easy for same-sex parents to have children. In order to adopt kids it takes a lot of work and they have to be truly devoted to raising a family. No matter what people say there has been no research found that kids with homosexual parents having any mental problems or are more likely to become gay themselves. If the people who say that gay marriage ruins the traditional marriage and they really want to get people living in the best families, supporting the amendment will not fix it.
This amendment must be defeated in November. If it does not it will leave Minnesota dragging behind other states and societies. People deserve equal rights and the constitution should not discriminate against human beings. I greatly urge voters to vote no so Minnesota can become a brighter place.
http://www.truthortradition.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1159
Read this article and see if you change your mind. 🙂
(p.s. this is just a suggestion. if you still don’t get it, you will when Jesus returns.)
@ Speakthetuth- Sorry but I totally disagree with your article. The bible contradicts itself all though out it. It says “love your neighbor as you love yourself,” God created everything, and that we shouldn’t judge each other. So what kind of Christian are you to do the opposite of what the bible says? (You don’t “love” gay people, you judge homosexuals and the LGBT community, and you don’t think God created homosexuality. I believe that you think that way because of the article you shared.) Being gay isn’t a sin. Rather a beautiful way to live ones life. By the way I am very strong devoted Christian and every time I see a person of color, a person who has a disability, or a person who is openly gay I see Gods love.
I feel like you are very one sided on this article and need to acknowledge the other side of the topic. Also I don’t think that quoting and getting statistics from a gay rights and gay parenting website is the most credible, which may be also incredibly biased.
Hey Christopher, I have a couple of critiques for you, if you’re willing to read them.
I assume that the goal of this article is to convince opponents of gay marriage to vote against the amendment, or at least show us, the audience, why you believe that we should vote against the amendment. That means that you’d want to first explain to us why gay marriage is worth defending. You don’t do this; you begin with the assumption that your audience agrees with you, as shown by paragraph 3. This alienates intended your audience, which is a bad thing.
In paragraphs 2 and 5, you argue that people should vote against the amendment because the majority of the next generation will not like it. Let me say this another way – you advise people to vote based not upon their own opinion and judgement, but on the opinions and judgments of the majority of young people – people who are still being educated. This is insanity.
I cannot tell what you are trying to say in paragraph 4. Are you trying to say that there are certain religious organizations who hold that being gay doesn’t offend God? There are. Are you trying to say that no religion forbids homosexuality? I think that Speakthetruth and many other people disagree with you. You only give one weak, generalized example that supports this, and that isn’t going to be enough for people who have grown up learning many strong reasons why homosexuality offends God.
Paragraph 6 had the potential to be your best paragraph, because of the statistics that support your viewpoint. They fail, however, to hold up under close scruntiny. divorcerate.org cites the Discovery Channel as the source of the 40% statistic, and I could not find that on the internet. I have no clue where it comes, or what data it’s based upon, so I cannot accept it as a fact. The gaymarriage.lifetips.com statistic is based on 4,037 marrige licences given out over a 1-month period in San Francisco in 2004. I don’t feel that that is a large enough sample to prove anything, especially since we have no data about how much more undereducated heterosexuals are.
You very obviously skim over things that don’t support your viewpoint. Just how much more difficult is it going to be for future generations to change the marrige amendment? Also, why does what “other people say” not matter in paragraph 7, but we are supposed to be convinced by the statistics from paragraph 6? This makes it seem like you believe what you believe for reasons other than the statistics you state, in which case you should tell us those, and not that.
This article also contains many grammatical errors, which makes it frustrating to read. It’s a little thing, but little things count when you’re trying to convince someone else. You don’t want to distract people from the main issue.
In light of all of these things, I think it’s safe to say that this article fails at its primary purpose – to convince people to vote against the proposed amendment who do not already plan on doing so.
I’d appreciate a response, if you have the time to make one.
See this segment of a statement from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Catholic Archdiocese…it may help you to see their viewpoint.
“All people are children of God. People who experience same-sex attraction are our beloved family members, friends, coworkers, and neighbors. The Catholic Church is committed to protecting the basic human rights of all people and condemning discrimination against those who identify themselves as gay or lesbian.
[But,] redefining marriage to accommodate same-sex couples is inconsistent with the teaching of Jesus and the Gospel.”
Calm down this is an opinion!
No.
Its Adam and Eve. Not Adam and Steve.
*EDIT* I also think that you are, instead of trying to convince skeptics of your beliefs, you throw in that, “people in this state are holding us back”. Also I think that using the term “deteriorate” is a bit over dramatic for what you are trying to accomplish with this story.
yes
Yes, it is an opinion, but editorial pieces still need to be quality journalistic work, and this article fails to meet the criteria of a good editorial in multiple areas as shown in InnocuousGuy’s post.
Hey, guess what? This is an OPINIONS article, as it states in the heading. It’s supposed to be one-sided. If you have an opinion about this topic, write a story giving statistics on the other side. 🙂
I think this article is inappropriate for a high school paper to print. People who are in high school are not for the most part voters. The way the article is written suggests anyone else not believing in Gay Marriage is someone who hates people who are gay. This is simply not true. Christians are called to love people and hate wrongdoing. It’s possible to separate the two issues. Most of your other commentors disagree strongly with your article for very strong reasons. I agree with their reasons.
The main point is your sources are faulty and that in itself is very poor journalism. If you’re planning on writing another article, make sure your sources are strong. This is poorly written.
I am simply stating what he could have done differently as opposed to using one sided sources. I feel like he could have done a better job of convincing skeptics and future voting. There are plenty of neutral sources on this topic and I simply recommend using them.
It rhymes, so it must be true.
How can this article be inappropriate for a high school to print; when there are currently gay/lesbian students walking around the halls of Buffalo High School? Sure this article may be biased and not the best journalistic work, but this is an opinion article. If you don’t like what this story has to say or respect this persons opinion, don’t read it.
Can I just be the first to say that I commend the author for being brave enough to post his opinion on such a controversial topic, it was incredibly brave and personally I don’t care how well written it it, I think it’s nice to see someone brave enough to take what comes with posting this.Good job, Chris!
I’m so sorry for you Speakthetruth. You feel the need to tell others that being themselves is a sin. I myself am not a religious person, which allows me to think for myself on this topic, unlike yourself. Gays are no different from you, if not better, because they do not discriminate unlike you.
Do we for force Christian beliefs on the gays and tell them that they cannot get married? Do we force gay beliefs on Christians and tell them that they must accept something which is against their religion? It’s a lose-lose situation as it stands…
Please keep commenting on this site civil; avoid accusatory statements. We may need to close comments on this article if conflict arises. Thank you.
Okay, here’s what I believe: God made Adam and Eve, one man and one woman, NOT two men or two women. Homosexuality is a sin.
Romans 1:26-27 – “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” (NIV)
God gave everyone the freedom to choose their lives, but let us know what was right from wrong. There is no reward to this sin.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 – “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” (NIV).
Believe me, I am not set on hating and despising gays. They may be a great person, but that cannot fool God. I choose to like the person for who they are, but I will never agree or like what they do.
But, that’s just me. If you see God’s love when you see a person who is gay, then you should try to look deeper into that love, for that love is filled with sorrow and heartache, for His children have wander away from Him, but His love keeps Him reaching out. God Bless.
God made a woman so that he could create a world. Now that we have no problem with underpopulation (do you see a shortage of people?), it does not matter. But how is it your choice to decide if homosexual people should be allowed to have the happiness of marriage or not?
I am gay. I have not told anyone this because I don’t want to be thought of as different.
If this bill is passed, that means that I am unable to enjoy the happiness of marriage. I need to ask: Why are people fighting against my rights as a citizen? Am I any lesser of a person than all of you? Why would you dissallow me to legally marry whomever I choose?
The Bible is a book. Harry Potter is a book. The existence of books doesn’t make them true.