What a Piece of Work Is Man

I should no longer be surprised by people’s capacity for hate, by the staggering measures human beings will undertake to harm others, even when they have nothing to gain from it, out of shear malice. But I confess, it does still surprise me. I suppose it is in my nature to hold out an optimistic hope that we can set aside our prejudices and show compassion to our fellow beings, especially when doing so represents no threat to ourselves. I guess I am glad that it still surprises me, glad that I still have hope. Yet, there are times when the utter smashing of that hope makes me heartsick and weary. Today is one of those times.

In the aftermath of yesterday’s presidential election, I should be celebrating, but you may be aware that California had another issue on the ballot. It was a proposition to alter the state’s constitution to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman, effectively prohibiting marriage for homosexual couples. This proposition passed. I simply cannot understand that.

This is not to say that I am in favor of homosexuality. I am neither for nor against it. It is merely a fact that some people - human beings like you and me - are gay. We may not like it - hell, they may not like it themselves - but our likes and dislikes do not alter the reality.

Darling wife saw a student at her school wearing a sticker in favor of the proposition. The sticker insisted that every child deserves a mommy and a daddy. OK. Soooo… what does that have to do with gay marriage? This issue is about the right for two consenting adults to marry one another. Children, or lack thereof, are not part of the matter being legislated. That is a logical fallacy if ever I saw one. Besides, what about all of the parents out there who are widowed or divorced or simply never wed in the first place? Their children do not have a mommy AND a daddy. Of course, biologically they do. They must. But biology also has nothing to do with this issue. We may not like to acknowledge broken homes; we may not think them ideal for raising a healthy child, but they are also a reality, and one that has nothing to do with the institution of marriage, gay or otherwise.

I saw on the news another proponent of the proposition, a young man of about 17 or 18 years old. He stated boldly and defiantly for the news camera, “I’m not gay. I love women! I want to marry a woman.” Well, good for you, kid. But again, what does that have to do with anything? Allowing gay people to marry one another will not stop this young man from loving and marrying a woman, will it? I’m not gay either, and I AM married to a wonderful woman. That won’t change even if a million gay people marry each other. My marriage or its sanctity will not be affected in the least. So, why should I care?

This young man went on to say, “I don’t want any kid in California to have to see that - two people of the same sex married to each other. Or any kid anywhere in this country. I want prop 8 to stop that from happening.” And this is the real crux of the matter, isn’t it? Of course, it’s not really about the hypothetical “kid” that this “kid” wants to protect. It is about his self-centeredness. He will not do something for the good of others if it does not benefit himself. No, actually, it’s worse than that. He will not even do nothing if his inaction benefits others and not himself. He had rather be active to take away someone else’s rights, even when those rights don’t in any way infringe upon his own. Because he is not gay and doesn’t want to marry another man, he doesn’t want anybody to. It is the very fact that gay marriage will mean absolutely nothing to him personally that allows him to want to ban it. That makes his act is an act of pure hatred for those who are not like himself, and though he may couch his words in moral sounding philosophy, it is hate, and hate of the worst kind. It is hate for no reason, hate against something that does him no harm, hate that is raw and ugly.

For all our claims of higher sensibilities and progressive development, how can we still… why do we… what are we?