I feel I should offer an continuation of my thoughts from last night. I was a bit emotionally charged and unsure how to proceed with what I wanted to say, but today I feel it important to clarify where I ended up by the end.

I respect any church’s right not to marry specific couples. One aspect of religion is that it does possess doctrines and commandments dictating specific behavior. Our government, however, possesses no such power. For our government to police our sexual practices, either through marriage or sex education, is for us as a people to allow the moral practices of our politicians to dictate our laws. That is so amazingly unacceptable I don’t even know where to begin. There is nothing UNETHICAL about two consenting adults having a state/country recognized marriage. Whether it is immoral or not is irrelevant, specifically because one person’s morals do not always coincide with another’s. The problem with trying to separate church from state is that the government runs into this exact problem. If you cease to recognize one religion’s morals as being superior to another’s then where is your moral compass? Most people lose sight of their morals once removed from a religious lens. A government cannot afford such a luxury. Especially not ours.

Lacking scientific evidence that two people of the same gender engaging in sexual activity is somehow detrimental to one or both of those people because it is same-sex intercourse means there is no reason not to recognize equal rights for homosexuals. Our government polices sex in the public because so long as you control how people feel about sex, to a very strong degree you control how people feel. I think a great many of us do not know how to divorce sex from morality in day to day living. Not on a personal level, all personal decisions will be made with one’s morals in mind, but in how we view others. We view people who engage in indiscriminate sex as immoral or worth less as human beings. We place a high value on a woman’s “gift” of her virginity to a man. We fear that if teenagers know the ins and outs of sex they will be powerless to stop themselves from having it.

Governments have operated under church rule for so long that our government doesn’t know how to do it any differently. People have spent so much time judging each other that they are incapable of breaking the pattern. We keep ourselves in an infantile mental state because we’re afraid we won’t be able to control ourselves, our children, or each other without it.

I believe it comes from a fundamental lack of faith in each other. So many of us do not expect others to act responsibly or parent responsibly and we support the parent-like role of the government as a way to fix the problem. Because people can’t be trusted to make the “right” decision, the government should make it for them. Because our kids won’t hold strong in the face of opposing views they shouldn’t be exposed to them. Because homosexuality is detrimental to society we should do our best to keep it out of the mainstream and hope it dies out.

I don’t believe this. I do believe, in fact, that the majority of people are good people. I believe that the majority of people, if surrounded by good influences, will behave in an acceptable, ethical way. I also believe the reason so many people in our society act like idiots is because we constantly tell them they are. What you’re feeling is wrong, what you’re feeling is dirty, what you want to do is unacceptable. A good person doesn’t feel that way, therefore you shouldn’t feel that way. If you expect people to fuck up, then fuck up is what they are going to do. Over and over again.

Education is dangerous. There is no doubt about it. If your children are educated then they have a greater chance of disagreeing with you. If they aren’t scared of sex then there is a greater chance they will approach their sexuality without shame. If they aren’t ashamed then they might act in a way you don’t believe to be moral. And what happens then? If it’s not consensual then it’s not ethical and they go to jail. That comes from a selfish desire that has nothing to do with education, however, and everything to do with character of person. If it is consensual then you are faced with the nearly impossible task of loving someone you don’t like. But is the answer to this problem the government’s policing of education and marriage? Does legality and policy actually promote moral character? No. Those of us that don’t murder abstain because we respect another’s right to live. I don’t avoid killing my students simply because I would go to jail for it. It’s the same basic principle that keeps me from decapitating a puppy. I don’t need the government’s approval for my sex life and neither does anyone else. Wouldn’t you rather have a child that followed your moral code because s/he believed in it, not because s/he didn’t know any better or was too scared to disagree? And wouldn’t you rather have a child that has equal rights and protects others equal rights instead of passing judgment?

Ask yourself this: what is so very scary about sex that we need to legislate it?