This is happening, deal with it.

Last Friday, lawmakers voted to legalize same-sex marriage, making New York the largest of the seven states to do so.

The bill that was passed is undoubtedly a breakthrough for the gay rights movement and should lead to more success in other states. But I do think the movement will not see a decrease in the efforts of the opposition.

One of the most intriguing elements in a civil rights movement is that the opposition feels they are threatened by another group gaining equal rights. They fight the inevitable change as if it will change the way they live, sometimes with great effort.

Normally I would suggest using all that energy spent fighting to find a way to adjust, but this type of change doesn’t require much energy to adapt. In this particular situation, I would suggest people just get over it and focus their efforts in a non-oppressive manner.

Ten days before the bill was passed, Sen. Roy McDonald, R-N.Y., released a statement about the vote on same-sex marriage that was shockingly human for a
politician.

“You get to the point where you evolve in your life where everything isn’t black and white, good and bad, and you try to do the right thing… I don’t care what you think. I’m trying to do the right thing,” McDonald said in the beginning of his statement.

If only more leaders could take such an honest approach to a topic of debate like McDonald has, especially one I’ve always felt to which the answer is obvious. Of course same-sex marriage should be legalized.

Remember that quote our history professors used to regurgitate all the time back in high school? Maybe your teacher tried to add a little bit of his own spice, but it probably went along the lines of “those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

It is a nice little idiom; an honest and simple statement to understand the answer to the high schooler’s proverbial question: “why should I care?”

Apparently the opposition of the gay rights movement has learned little from our own history. Our society has seen movements such as women’s suffrage and the African American civil rights movement, but we still have a large segmentation that doesn’t want another group to have the same rights as the majority of other citizens.

There probably isn’t an argument that you could construct to sway my opinion. Why? Because every argument against equality for same-sex marriage is based in the short term reality.

The people who oppose same-sex marriage in New York probably weren’t that happy on Friday or Saturday. I can only guess the reasons to their personal qualms: they all probably felt their way of life is some how changed, their marriage is less sacred or they’re worried the neighborhood might have a few same-sex couples soon. 

But legalizing same-sex marriage isn’t short term. We seem to ignore the ability we all have to adapt to changes and get over things that previously pissed us off.

The freedoms women won in 1920 and later the freedoms the African Americans won in the 50s and 60s are now regarded as common sense. In 20 to 30 years after the majority of the states legalize same-sex marriage, people will view the gays having the freedom to marry as common sense. Simply because it is.

Many of us can remember reading about the civil rights movements in our textbooks where African American and women struggled. The violence that took place in those times were appalling.

Luckily, that type of violence is not as present in the current gay rights movement.
However, I can’t help but think the future generations that sit in history class while they read about the struggles for equality of the gay population will also feel
embarrassed.

­— agreiner@indiana.edu