Today is an historic day. Make sure you write it down, as it will be referred to as a precedent-setting day. June 26, 2015: The Supreme Court Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage. (Supreme Court Response document here)
My day started with a series of notifications on my iPhone from CNN. The first alerted me that the Supreme Court had made a decision. The second informed me that the Supreme Court had legalized same-sex marriage. I knew it would be an interesting day. I was not disappointed.
My Facebook feed is filled with responses to “The Decision.” I have friends from a variety of walks of life, and so all of the responses are not alike. Many cheer for the battle won. Some cheer because the decision impacts them directly. Others cheer because they believe, like me, that the decision is right, and a long time coming. Still others, not so much. There are those who object, mostly on the basis of their religious values. And I can see that those people are gathering together to commiserate their perceived loss of religious freedom.
I believe there is a lot of confusion around Individual Rights, Religious Freedom, and Government, or “the State.” The United States is NOT a Theocracy. We are NOT governed by any religion. Iran is a Theocracy, and I know I wouldn’t want to live there. I love my country, and I believe in my God. But I do not believe that I should legislate according to my own religious values when they are not shared by 100% of the people who will be governed. But, let’s take a look at this, anyway.
This ruling does nothing to change anyone’s religious freedom. We have always had the freedom to be around people who believe differently than we do, and who behave differently than we do. That will not change. A person’s right to frown on someone else because they are not like them, because they don’t understand “them,” because they think they are better than “them,” because their religion says they will go to hell, will not change.
This ruling does not mean that priests will have to conduct religious wedding ceremonies. It means that same sex couples can be married. The State is required to license the wedding. There are plenty of people who will be happy to perform a secular wedding. A religious ceremony is not required for the marriage to be considered valid.
However, if a same-sex couple does want to have a religious wedding, it seems they may have options. The Public Religion Research Institute recently used data from its American Values Atlas to determine where America’s major religious groups stand on the issue. Members of some of the mainstream religious may be surprised to find how many of their members support marriage equality.
As a person in an “opposite-sex” marriage, this ruling has almost no impact on me, except that I can now be happy for my same-sex couple friends who choose to get married, and I can help support their marriage as the decent human being that I am. Regardless of what the Jensens think, or what Rick Scarborough believes, there will be zero impact to my religious values, and zero impact to my marital status. Both of those are privately held, and unchanged.
As for my same-sex couple friends, they can now have all the rights that I have. The right to have their relationship acknowledged as a normal, permanent, loving relationship. The right to be acknowledged as a family member, the right to be acknowledged as the parent of an adopted child. I, for one, am ready to bake a cake!
So congratulations to same-sex couples! This is one giant step, but there are more to go. As a woman, I stand by you in your fight against discrimination, and to be valued for who you are.
To the dissenters — this isn’t about you. No, really, it isn’t.