Guest Blogger: Mary

Hello my loyal reader.  Ah, but the updates come few and far between these days, do they not?  My apologies for that.  Still trying to settle into a new routine around all the other responsibilities that have been heaped upon me of late.  In the meantime, I am greatly appreciative of my friends who have offered their own submissions for my blog.  Today, I am featuring an article from my good friend Mary.  I'm not going to use her last name per her request, but she sent me this a few weeks ago and has been incredibly patient with me as I lagged and procrastinated getting it up here.  So, without further ado, I turn my blog over to an incredibly bright and talented young lady...

My husband and I have been happily married for nearly thirteen years.  Do I think marriage is sacred?  No, I believe marriage is precious and fragile.  Marriage is a right that every human being willing to risk their happiness, their life, and their soul for another should be allowed.

            Marriage is hard work.  “Happily ever after” doesn’t exist without constant effort.  You have to be there for one another even when your spouse isn’t much fun to be around.

            Marriage is an extension of love, at least in most societies.  Love is the most beautiful and compelling emotion displayed by humanity.  It is the catalyst for our greatest joy and sadness.  It can consume, fulfill, or destroy us.  Those who dare to love are the bravest among us.

            Sadly, we live in a world where a fraction of the population has always sought to dictate who should be allowed to marry.  Until the later part of the twentieth century, many felt interracial marriage was an abomination.  It was even a crime in some places.   Today, most of us recognize the laws against interracial marriage as a great injustice in our history.

            However, for all our progress, our growth as a species, we still deny this right to some.  Do I believe in gay marriage?  I believe in marriage.  Any human being willing to put his or her self in such a vulnerable situation, to risk their very self in order to spend their life with another human being, should have the opportunity to marry.

            Why do I care?  I, as a heterosexual woman, would never be denied this precious, fragile right.  Well, truth is I care for a couple of reasons.  Number one, I believe as long as we, the human race, deny such a basic and valuable right to a portion of our society, we are flawed and inhumane.  The second reason is rather selfish.  I’m bisexual.  It is my belief that my bisexuality is a result of my physiology, my biological makeup.  I have been attracted to both men and women since I entered puberty.   It has been a part of who I am as long as I can remember.  I just happened to fall in love with a man and marry him.  However, I may have just as easily fallen in love with a woman and wished to marry her.

            The horrible injustice that I could have faced and that many gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered individuals face horrifies and confounds me.  Why, in a world plagued with so much sadness, would anyone deny another human being the right to express his or her love for another?  Love is beautiful, no matter its orientation.