Moral Reasonings

Ok, so I had this come up a couple of days ago in a talk during lunch. And we got into a heated debate about it, or at least it could have been heated if I wasn't dragging my butt exhausted due to the fact that I had a grand total of two hours of sleep the night before.

I don't exactly remember how it came to this topic, but it arrived due to a topic that should be adamently ignored while you are in uniform. We were discussing politics, and we eventually came upon the topic of Gay Marriage.

First, let me state my opinion on Gay Marriage, because that is what it is, an opinion and nothing more. I personally do not agree with Homosexuality based on my religious beliefs and the fact that I find Anal sex to be downright disgusting, and the fact that it is proven that the homosexual 'lifestyle' (term used loosely based on that discussion) is dangerous in the spread of communicable diseases and STD's (my line of work in the military, though I admit heterosexuals are not exempt either)among other things.

However, I do not see it as my place to tell other people how they should or should not live. I do not believe in ammending the constitution to ban gay marriage because I have a slight libertarian view on this topic. I don't like the government getting involved in my personal life and choices, and I admit that if I were gay I would still feel that way. If this came up to vote in my own state, to tell you the honest truth, I'm not sure how I would vote. Despite my conservative leanings, I might actually vote against a ban.

However again, I do not believe that the government should also condone homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle in public school sex education, for a variety of reasons. For one, the government is starting to tread on moral ground, and therefore when the government is teaching you something that is contradictory to what you are teaching them, who is your child to believe? School or their parents? And if they decide to side with you as opposed to their education on the matter, how seriously are going to take the rest of their education? But then again, I don't believe that it should be condemned, because condemnation breeds intolerance, and I know something about that.

What eventually this breeds down to is I told the person I was having this debate with that I don't believe the government should be involved in what I teach my children to be right and wrong. If I choose to teach my children that homosexuality is wrong, his argument started to come along the lines of, 'if your teaching your child this argument and they later decide that they were gay, wouldn't that put a strain on your relationship with your child?'

I basically ended the conversation here, because I was bloody tired, but I wish I continued. The truth is, I believe the freedom of choice, and my own understanding is we live by a series of choices. I will teach my children on what I believe is right and wrong, as they are my children and that is my right. However, if my child decided they were gay and chose to live that 'lifestyle', they would know where I stand on the subject but it wouldn't make me love them any less. There are many lifestyle choices that we can make that will cause contention with our parents, I shouldn't have to change my basic moral beliefs to appease somebody else, even my own children. What does that say about me if I did?

If I taught my children that smoking is wrong and dangerous to your health (which I believe to be correct), and my child then chose to smoke, would that make me love them any less? Of course not. I might be disappointed, but I shouldn't have to decide that smoking was ok because my child was doing it. I can only continue to love and support them, and let them know that in this circumstance, I disagree with their choice but continue to love them.

Of course, what I said instead was that I don't intend to have children because they drive me nuts (I go through these feelings quite constantly, I have 9 nieces and nephews and keep saying to myself that my siblings can take care of the gene pool and leave me out of it.)

Anyway, the gist of the conversation is I don't believe that the government should be involved in anything based on moral reasoning, which includes sexual behavior, unless involving children who don't know any better and non consenting adults. But then again, legalizing Gay Marriage brings up a whole new series of issues that will need to be involved and frankly I don't know if I want to get into that discussion, because face it, this is a hot topic that I find even myself torn in several directions regarding.

I can see why this is a concern for so many people however. For a long time, homosexuality was something that many considered to be vile and wrong and was only practiced in privacy. It wasn't talked about and those that were open were generally shunned. Then it became more and more accepted as an alternative 'lifestyle', and though ten years ago, gay marriage was considered preposterous, now it is considered realistic.

Seeing how far the homosexual lobby has come makes me wonder how long it will take for NAMBLA to gain more clout and become more acceptable by mainstream society. And that in itself is freaking terrifying. When is enough enough? Where does the government draw the line in their interferance on what should or shouldn't be recognized?

More of my own rambling two cents on the matter. Honestly, I don't know what anybody can gain from this.