Legalisation of Gay Marriage

As you may have noticed, I try to leave at least 3 or 4 days between uploading new blog posts and to be honest, up until yesterday I was happy for that to be the case. I felt no rush to write again, I had no topics in mind which needed to be urgently addressed. Then, at around lunchtime yesterday, I saw a couple of tweets which caught my attention. Tweets includng the hashtag '#LoveWins'. I must admit I was a bit confused by it and it wasn't until a few hours later that I began to see articles on my Facebook news feed about gay marriage in the United States. Reading these articles made me understand what events had unfolded previous to these news articles being written and eveything I had seen made a lot more sense.

I headed back to Twitter a bit later on to see my news feed full of uplifting messages about the matter and I was absolultey delighted to see this. I feel as though it truly shows that change is happening in the world and we are moving forward as a species. Legalising gay marriage is one thin but the fact that it was legalised in the whole of America just shows how far we've come in terms of equal rights. The occasion has been widely celebrated by thousands and thousands of people. It has been majorly recognised and celebrated by social media sites such as Snapchat and Twitter. I think it is absolultey fantastic that so many people are bakes to freely celebrate such an occasion and the responses that I have seen have shown immense pride.

Personally, I am not directly affected by the matter but that does not lessen my understanding or happiness about the subject. I think it's a huge step for everyone but especially America, a country which has been viewed often as unaccepting of change and equality to have knocked down so many barriers to come to this. It gives so much hope to people including myself that one day, everyone will be equal, no matter what differences they have. I expect that it also brings hope to gay people who are not yet accepted, either by their family, friends or society in general, that they will one day experience being fully accepted by all. I know how much of a struggle coming out can be for people, mainly due to the fear of rejection by those around them but this just proves that people can change their opinion and learn to accept change. It shows that fighting for what you believe in can make a difference and a huge, positive impact.

I do understand there are people who will not accept this change and, although I vaguely understand their reasoning, I in no way agree with these people. But, in my opinion, few of them will be effected with this change. I can almost guarantee that they will make a huge deal about it being rubbed in their face when in fact it is just people celebrating their own lives, not knocking others. Lets put it this way, if it was someones birthday, they are allowed to celebrate but they shouldn't be made to feel bad because you are not celebrating. If it does not effect your everyday life, does it really matter? Some of these people will only be effected by seeing same sex couples wearing wedding rings. It's not as if they are inviting them to the wedding or wearing the rings to purposely get to them. I feel as though people against same sex marriage think everything is being done to annoy them rather than things being done for other people's happiness and to be quite honest, this is a very selfish attiutde to have.

I can not even begin to imagine the happiness that same sex couples in America must be experiencing right now. So many more doors have been opened for them. So many opportunities are available to them now that weren't before. They are equal. They have the same rights as everyone else and I can't believe this has only just happened. It seems so bizarre that people who are so committed to wanting people to find love and be happy can also be against two people getting married because they are the same gender. It's been a long battle for the LGBT but something amazing has finally come out of it and I'm so proud to have been around when this change occurred.

Part of me is interested in seeing the aftermath of this decision as people will, no doubt, make statements about it not being natural and against God. I am not a very religious person at all but I do know for a fact that one of the Ten Commandments is 'Love thy neighbour'. This literally means loves everyone. It does not state only love them if they are straight or only love them if they have the same beliefs as you. It means that people should love everyone. I am glad that I have been able to witness so many people celebrating even if only through social media as it shows me just how much this meant to so many people. I am almost certain that it has made more people happy than it has upset so surely people can see it was worth it.

One of the stories that has struck me was about the first same sex couple to get married in Texas. A couple who had been together for 54 years. 54 years of waiting to have equal rights. I think this really does show true love. A love which has most likely been frowned upon for over half a century but has kept the two together regardless. It shows that a gay couple should have no less rights than a straight couple and as far as I am concerned, they deserve the exact same treatment as anyone else.

I hope that people learn for this that change is happening. I hope people see what a positive impact this has had and that people realise how important equality is. I hope that this is the begining in a long line of change to happen all over the world in terms of equality. I hope people understand that gay marriage is important for two reasons; to celebrate love and to display equality. I really hope society begins to move away from negative views on topics such as this. But most of all, I hope that gay couples are able to celebrate their love in a way they should have always been able to celebrate it.

--- Aimee ---