Vermont’s state legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto today, becoming the first state to legalize homosexual marriage through the proper legislative process. Vermont is the fourth state to have legalized same-sex marriage, but Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Iowa have each had gay marriage retroactively read into their state constitutions through activist and, in my opinion, illicit and constitutionally invalid judicial rulings. California also had legal gay marriage under a similar judicial ruling for several months before the people of the state amended the California Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage.
I have spoken in great detail on this web site before about my opinions regarding homosexuality. I consider homosexual activity to be sinful and immoral. That does not mean that being gay is a sin, but choosing to act on those disordered attractions is. I firmly oppose, however, the government legislation of morality—especially when it comes to the private sexual escapades of consenting adults—and I firmly oppose any professional or academic discrimination against anybody on the basis of their sexual orientation. I have no right to impose my moral beliefs on others.
I do not believe that the government should lend any formal recognition to homosexual relationships (which do not meet the historic or moral definitions of marriage), but it’s not the end of the world if government does choose to recognize these unions either. Churches and individuals should not hang themselves up too much on what is legal. The murder of unborn children is legal too in this country, but that does not mean that I have to support it or participate in it.
I do, however, have a big problem with activist judges fabricating a ‘right’ to redefine marriage out of thin air. If the people wish to change the millennia-old definition of marriage as it is applied by their state governments, they have every right to do so through their legislative processes—as Vermont just did. I disagree with the outcome, but I recognize it as a valid policy decision made by a validly representative government. Public policy, however, is not to be written, re-written, and proclaimed by judges who appoint themselves kings.