Gay marriage

James Dobson, nationally known religious figure and head of Focus on the Family, will be in Nashville tonight for a rally in support of Tennessee's proposed gay marriage ban.

This news bothers me for a number of reasons. While I respect Dobson's right to his personal opinions, I think gay marriage is largely a non-issue in our society. Regardless of one's position about homosexuality, in my opinion allowing gays to marry is not likely to harm the institution of marriage. What is hurting marriage, I think, is our divorce rate rather than who is actually doing the marrying.

I also think that conservatives and the Republican party are using this issue as a wedge issue to maintain power. I don't object to their desire to stay in office, but I do have a problem with how they are going about it. Opponents of gay marriage, in my opinion, are shifting the focus away from more urgent issues such as our foreign policy, Iraq, North Korea and the war on terror, education, poverty and health care as a means of manipulating people using fear. We have more important things to address than who marries whom, if you ask me.

For the record, I am in favor of permitting gay marriage. As someone recently put it, why celebrate family by taking away someone else's right to have one?