Forbidden Love

by Charlie Webb

Why are so many "Christians" so eager to outlaw gay love and gay marriage? Some even claim that marriage is a "sacred" institution. Yet the average marriage lasts less than eight years, while half of all marriages end in divorce. Ambrose Bierce defined love as a "temporary insanity curable by marriage."

Many protest that same-sex relations are "unnatural," which is to say that they don't occur in nature. Mother Nature says otherwise. The Bonobo chimpanzees (our closest living genetic relative) enjoy sex all day long, with the majority of action being between same-sex partners. If nature is to be our guide, then the most unnatural of sexual perversions is celibacy. Others claim that marriage is meant for child bearing. Yet increasing numbers of newlyweds choose never to have children. And who dares to say that sterile men and women should be banned from marriage? No one. Open bigotry is reserved for other minorities (such as Moslems, atheists, and gays).

Most gay-bashing Christians use the Bible as their excuse, just as slave-holders once used the Bible to justify slavery. They must never actually read their Bibles, since they completely neglect to enforce the other crazy rules of Exodus and Leviticus -- like killing anyone who works on the Sabbath (really); or killing their own children for cursing Mom or Dad (how unnatural can you get??). If you "believe" in the Bible, either you swallow the whole impossible "word of God" propaganda line or else you pick and choose your Bible beliefs and practice selective moral hypocrisy. And "what would Jesus do"? The Jesus of the Bible hated one thing above all others: hypocrites. He tended to favor love over hate. And he was very fond of saying, "Judge not, that you be not judged." How strange it is that this advice never caught on with his followers.

In the greatest forbidden love story of all time, Romeo and Juliet are driven to suicide. This is what bigotry has wrought in the USA, with teenage gays having by far the highest suicide rate of any minority. Their blood is on the hands of the self-righteous.

What would we lose by allowing gay lovers to marry? Nothing. And what would we gain? Citizens who knew they were respected and valued, who could finally enjoy the same rights already possessed by everyone else. After hundreds of years of oppression, it's time to end what Jefferson called "this loathsome combination of Church and State."

Does anyone "choose" to be gay or straight? Of course not. No one chooses the insanity of love. Love chooses you. It is up to each of us to make the most of our wonderful affliction.

Charlie Webb   November 2008

First published October 2003.