Letter | Religion used as excuse to keep U.S. behind the times on same-sex marriage

Gay marriage is not a religious issue. Many religions in the U.S. accept it, such as the Presbyterian Church USA, The Conservative, as well as the Reformed Jewish movements, Quakers, Unitarian Universalists, United Church of Christ and the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

The numbers are growing.

Gay Marriage does not in any way devalue or harm heterosexual marriage since both have to do with loving and committed partners. It also does not harm our species since we have already vastly overpopulated the Earth.

Everyone should know by now that homosexuals do not choose to be different; that’s just naturally who they are. Thus discrimination against them is no different from our discrimination against women, those with a different skin color, those who are disabled, those who are poor, or those who have served in the military.

Discrimination against anyone is tragic. It demeans us all.

To say that people who are attracted to the same sex and are in love cannot marry is not only unjust; it’s unconstitutional.

Change is hard. It always has been. Now essentially everyone thinks there should be no slaves, women should have the right to vote, and people with dark skin should be treated equally. But that has not always been so. This same thing is now true as we move to grant equal rights to homosexuals.

However, the time has come to move quickly into this human rights area because once again, it’s the right thing to do.

Women were never stupid. Blacks were never inferior. Homosexuals were never deviates.

No, society’s perception of them was stupid, inferior and deviate.

We say that we are meant to be a nation leading the way to justice and equality, but Europe, including Great Brittan, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, South Africa, New Zealand, Iceland and a growing number of others have already accepted same sex marriage.

In 2002, only 32 percent of the U.S. population was in favor of gay marriage, but it’s now risen to 52 percent. This civil rights issue in our midst must be addressed now so that we can honestly say that today we are a nation “with liberty and justice for all.”

The writer lives in Murrells Inlet.

This story was originally published May 14, 2015 at 2:38 PM with the headline "Letter | Religion used as excuse to keep U.S. behind the times on same-sex marriage."