Marriage Rights Are Not About Morality, It’s about Human Rights

Truth be told, I haven’t been following the various state and local propositions down South. We don’t have those things up here in Canada, which is both good and bad. Regardless I’m hearing things about Proposition 8 down in California and it doesn’t sound like a terribly good thing—Proposition 8 Supporters Can #SuckIt.

In Canada we’ve had marriage rights for all for some time now. And as Erin points out, this isn’t a matter of morality, it’s a matter of basic civil rights.

You have to look at what the Bill of Rights and Constitution or Charter of Rights and Freedoms with an eye towards the full meaning. When challenged in Canada’s Supreme Court the Justices found, and rightly so, that there was no legal reason to bar gays and lesbians from marrying.

All the arguments I’ve heard made against have been based on moral reasons, not legal ones. Marriage, looked at from the government’s perspective, should be a civil matter and should be treated as such. A truly free government and people cannot discriminate against its citizens like that. You can’t choose who has rights and who doesn’t.

Churches, likewise, can’t be forced to recognize or perform marriages for all. That is their right. If you believe in the separation of church and state and do not allow your personal morality to interfere with civil rights, then this should not be a problem for you.

The question for then is, do you support basic civil rights for all or do you discriminate based on something else?

Tagged as: civil rights, marriage rights, no on prop 8