The Supreme Court Justices announced on Friday, Jan. 16 that they are going to step into the gay marriage debate, bringing a final say to the issue once and for all.
This is coming from an appellate court’s decision to uphold the ban on same-sex marriage in Ohio, Tennessee, Michigan and Kentucky. The Court will likely undergo a hearing process in April and make a decision by early summer.There are currently 35 states that recognize same-sex marriages, and those four are among the 14 that ban it.
Arkansas is one of those 14.
Now, on May 9 of last year, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza ruled the ban unconstitutional. The ban previously existed under state law and voter-approved constitutional amendment. For a day, 456 licenses had been issued in total to couples in a few counties across Arkansas, getting the chance to celebrate their love as men and women do in our country. But on May 16, the State Supreme Court suspended that ruling, stopping all gay marriages within the state.
I feel as though I should tell everyone I’m a heterosexual male gendered dude. I’m also white with brown hair, so I’m as average (and boring) as it gets, and saying so probably will offend or interest zero amount of people. I say this with the realization that there are many who live in fear of who they are or what their peers may think. It concerns me that there are people out there, possibly in our own community here, who try to hide who they are from their communities out of fear of social exclusion from friends and family. I can’t fathom what it must be like to be in that situation.
Too many times I’ve heard about LGBTQ teenagers committing suicide from being bullied or getting kicked out of their homes by their parents for coming out. I wish for a better tomorrow where these sort of things were only heard of in fiction.
I stayed for the entirety of the Civil Rights Ordinance 119 meeting while covering it for The Free Weekly in August, and I heard a man talk about how he had to tell his landlord that he lived with his “brother” from fear of eviction.
I will say this, I think change is best experienced at a slow rate. This is especially true for countries. Acute experiences of change seem to often be met with equal amounts of stress and emotions with dealing with the change, be it a new law or a legalization of a certain substance. With this slow turning of the tide of philosophy, we can find more people coming to terms with change and seeing things in the new light.
With 35 states already accepting same-sex marriage, I think it’s high time for change for the country’s federal marriage laws and its outdated view of love.
It is with sincerity I hope the Supreme Court makes a majority decision to allow families to be recognized for the love they have built and allow them to continue to grow with the support of their government.
It’s time this country recognized love for what it can be between two people. Love is a horribly difficult and elusive thing to find and develop with another person, and it is generally agreed upon to be the most important thing we human beings value in life. So the fact that two particular people can find it together, and be structurally and culturally told it’s wrong bothers me.
Who would I be to say the love between two gay individuals is not equal to love I might share with another heterosexual woman? It’s just not right, man. I think the LGBTQ community has made it expressively clear that this is something they need.
I hope the Supreme Court sees it this way. I know there are numerous factors that go into something like this, and there are immeasurable amounts of other things going on that deserve dialogue. But for today, I just want to say I hope things go in the favor of the LGBTQ community in June.
It’s Time For Love To Win
Nick Brothers
The Free Weekly Managing Editor
The Supreme Court Justices announced on Friday, Jan. 16 that they are going to step into the gay marriage debate, bringing a final say to the issue once and for all.
This is coming from an appellate court’s decision to uphold the ban on same-sex marriage in Ohio, Tennessee, Michigan and Kentucky. The Court will likely undergo a hearing process in April and make a decision by early summer.There are currently 35 states that recognize same-sex marriages, and those four are among the 14 that ban it.
Arkansas is one of those 14.
Now, on May 9 of last year, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza ruled the ban unconstitutional. The ban previously existed under state law and voter-approved constitutional amendment. For a day, 456 licenses had been issued in total to couples in a few counties across Arkansas, getting the chance to celebrate their love as men and women do in our country. But on May 16, the State Supreme Court suspended that ruling, stopping all gay marriages within the state.
I feel as though I should tell everyone I’m a heterosexual male gendered dude. I’m also white with brown hair, so I’m as average (and boring) as it gets, and saying so probably will offend or interest zero amount of people. I say this with the realization that there are many who live in fear of who they are or what their peers may think. It concerns me that there are people out there, possibly in our own community here, who try to hide who they are from their communities out of fear of social exclusion from friends and family. I can’t fathom what it must be like to be in that situation.
Too many times I’ve heard about LGBTQ teenagers committing suicide from being bullied or getting kicked out of their homes by their parents for coming out. I wish for a better tomorrow where these sort of things were only heard of in fiction.
I stayed for the entirety of the Civil Rights Ordinance 119 meeting while covering it for The Free Weekly in August, and I heard a man talk about how he had to tell his landlord that he lived with his “brother” from fear of eviction.
I will say this, I think change is best experienced at a slow rate. This is especially true for countries. Acute experiences of change seem to often be met with equal amounts of stress and emotions with dealing with the change, be it a new law or a legalization of a certain substance. With this slow turning of the tide of philosophy, we can find more people coming to terms with change and seeing things in the new light.
With 35 states already accepting same-sex marriage, I think it’s high time for change for the country’s federal marriage laws and its outdated view of love.
It is with sincerity I hope the Supreme Court makes a majority decision to allow families to be recognized for the love they have built and allow them to continue to grow with the support of their government.
It’s time this country recognized love for what it can be between two people. Love is a horribly difficult and elusive thing to find and develop with another person, and it is generally agreed upon to be the most important thing we human beings value in life. So the fact that two particular people can find it together, and be structurally and culturally told it’s wrong bothers me.
Who would I be to say the love between two gay individuals is not equal to love I might share with another heterosexual woman? It’s just not right, man. I think the LGBTQ community has made it expressively clear that this is something they need.
I hope the Supreme Court sees it this way. I know there are numerous factors that go into something like this, and there are immeasurable amounts of other things going on that deserve dialogue. But for today, I just want to say I hope things go in the favor of the LGBTQ community in June.
Thanks for reading.