Editorial commentary:

We received this article directly from the author. He lives in the southern United States and, as you might imagine, he has not had a lot of luck in finding a local place to publish his thoughts.

If you can read this piece and disagree, then you are simply not as intelligent as Alex Whittington. And he is only 14-years-old.

-prh

Axis of Logic editor

There is no such thing as Gay Rights. None whatsoever. At least, in terms of the validity of marriage.

It is true; the United States Constitution never mentions or affords marital privileges to homosexual couples. Nothing is said about civil unions, domestic partnerships, or any legal bond between people of the same sex.

However, our constitution doesn’t say anything about straight, or heterosexual, marriages either. In fact, the Founding Fathers were completely silent on marriage as a whole. It is never defined, limited, or referred to. The word “marriage” actually isn’t in the Constitution even once, contrary to popular belief. Therefore, one cannot say marriages are between one man and one woman if it is never included in our originating legislation.

To be fair though, gay marriage isn’t really something that would have been on the Framers’ minds in the first place. On that note however, most of the world today is drastically different from their world. They never wrote into the Constitution anything about the Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, traffic laws, or nuclear warfare policy. However, this doesn’t devalue or demerit those things. No one asks our government to shut down half of the branches in our Armed Forces because it’s “unconstitutional”. Nor do they insist that we should be able to drive around at 100mph for leisure or release all our nuclear weapons on foreign nations. In the same way, gay marriages shouldn’t be devalued or demerited simply because they aren’t explicitly granted by the Constitution.

It is true that most states do not allow the marriage of same sex couples. Until recently what two men do in a bedroom was regulated by the government, even here in Louisiana. It is needless to say that a plethora of today’s state laws are really very old and outdated, especially in regards to marriage. In fact, it is currently legal in more states to marry your cousin than it is to marry someone of the same gender. There are issues in law about the only legal language to speak in public being “American”, and riding a horse through town on Sunday being a criminal offense. Some of the “supporting documents” may define marriage explicitly as between heterosexual couples, but our country isn’t run on supporting documents, nor the Bible as many would suggest; it is run on our Constitution. None of these things apply in today’s society. Which makes me ask: why are they still there?

Given these circumstances, the legality of gay marriage is really something to be determined by the people. This country is still a democracy after all. But a democracy may only properly function if the citizens are informed and educated. The number of people shouting about how “constitutionally speaking” only heterosexual marriages are legally valid is a disconcerting testament to the reality that most people have never even skimmed over the Constitution, much less tried to correctly interpret it.

Nonetheless, it is still up to the people and according to Amendment X: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Therefore, it is completely within a State’s rights to determine what constitutes a marriage.

However, this brings about only more issues. If State “A” decides it will grant and acknowledge same-sex marriages, State “B” must honor that due to Article IV,Sec. I of the Constitution, known as the Full Faith and Credit Clause. It states that “Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.”

But this coin has two sides, raising another issue. If State “A” must honor State “B”, then the inverse is also true. So which State supersedes the other?

If we read just a little further into Section II of Article IV we can see that it reads “The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.” Therefore, we can see that in lieu of Section I’s ambiguity as to “who’s right”, State “B” must also recognize State “A’s” marriages and afford the same privileges to its citizens. Some people would say that, in spite of those provisions, the two States “A” and “B” are at a tie. Some people would say that since neither party can be determined as “winner” in the issue, the same-sex married couple in question should just stay in State “A”. That suggestion, especially if made into a law, would be unconstitutional. Amendment XIV Section I reads that “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” A state may not, under any circumstance, “deport” a citizen to another state.

Given all of this, I have come to this conclusion: There are no gay rights, only human rights. If two people want to live happily together then they have every right to. Gays are not asking others to get married like they do, they’re not insisting that Churches do it, they just want marriage. Many people often have a terrible image of what will happen if two people of the same sex marry, but the reality is quite simple. Gays will marry. The terrorists will not win, the sky will not fall, society and the “sanctity” of marriage will not be obliterated, and Poseidon will not release the Kraken. I promise.