Can a Gay be Against Gay Marriage? Yes! : Part 1

I know this is a devisive issue, especially for people I know personally. As someone who legally got married to a man in Iowa, almost two years ago, then separated a few months later, gay marriage hits home to me very personlly. I never dreamed I would get married and just a few short months later be left with a husband who didn't want to be married to me. It is very difficult for us to get a divorce. We tried to get an annulment since it wasn't legal in Missouri, but it was dismissed due to a similar case as ours, but with two lesbians. We were unaware of their case when we filed for our annulment. They appealed which is expensive, like $10k, but the Missouri Appeals court ruled that Missouri courts do not have jurisdiction to rule on common law or same sex marriages. Therefore we can't annul our marriage or get a divorce in Missouri. Our options are limited. One of us would have to live in Iowa for a year before we could file or one of us could move to a state where gay marriage is legal and we don't have to wait a whole year to file for divorce. This whole experience and my libertarianism has changed my opinion of the government being involved in marriage, period, whether heterosexual or homosexual. Marriage originally was recognized and performed by religious institutions. Our government has used marriage, in my opinion, solely to get more money. I don't think the government should be involved at all in recognizing or establishing who can get married. The unfortunate thing is that marriage controlled by our government limits rights to homosexuals. The government needs to get out of our personal lives and focus on getting out of debt and protecting our country. If someone wants to call their relationship a marriage, then they should be able to. If they can't or are not allowed by the government or religious institutions, they should still be able to have every single right that anyone else does in a "marriage." Our Declaration of Independence is clear as far as the governments role in our lives... "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Let's focus our attention elsewhere, gay community and allies. I understand why we want marriage equality from the government. I do, but as a libertarian, I think our focus should be just getting the government out of our personal lives and let those in our communities face the moral questions instead of bringing the moral aspect of the issue to the government to figure out.

Can a Gay can be Against Gay Marriage? Yes! : Part 2

It has been brought to my attention that I am pushing acceptance of gay marriage and I want to be clear with what I believe. I merely am sharing posts and opinions of articles from others to educate those that I know with what is being said from various sides of the issue. I am not pushing anything upon anyone. You have the discression to read or not read what I post. You can have my posts not aptpear on your newsfeed if you desire. I am simply exhibiting my right to free speech. I am not forcing anyone to read what I post. I do have my own opinions which I have posted and are available to read on my blog at http://James-jaeger.blogspot.com/. This topic of gay marriage is something that I have dealt with personally and I know and understand the positions from all sides. I have heard the arguments and reasons presented for and against gay marriage. I have just as much right to post what I want as much as you have the same right. As you will see in my blog post, I have come to believe that all marriages, in general, whether heterosexual or homosexual, should not be associated with our government at all. Therefore, even though I did get legally married to a man in Iowa almost two years ago, I would not do it today for my political reasons of what the role of government should be. Am I a hypocrite? Have I flip-flopped on the issue? You could say yes and I wouldn't necessarily disagree with you. But also as a Christian, I think it is important for us to humbling admit when we have been wrong or hypocritical instead of trying to always give off the image that we are perfect or have everything figured out and therefore are superior to others. Christians who are like that are self righteous and similar to the Pharisees in the Bible that Jesus consistently called out to repent. Am I self righteous sometimes? Yes. Does that discredit my faith? I don't believe so, because I can admit my faults...most of the time. And that, I believe is a more effective evangelism tool, being real, than trying to sound like I am perfect and have everything figured out. Marriage has long been a part of religious institutions before civil marriages granted by the government came into existence. As a libertarian, a former republican and never a democrat, I believe in true limited government, personal liberty, and personal responsibility. Since 1913 when our government went away from the gold standard and the Federal Reserve was created privately (no direct connection to our Federal government) over a hundred years ago now, the size of our government has increased at such a face pace. With the increase of the government, new taxes have been created to pay for our outrageously big federal government. One way the government has made money is through granting civil marriages, or marriage licenses. I believe that granting marriage licenses is not the role of the government. Many people today, whether on the Left or Right, have coebto accept the status quo of our government and continue to increasen it's size and power. We need to take a look back at our history and see how the decisions that started a hundred years ago have affected and brought our government to point of bankruptcy. I do however believe in civil rights, personal liberty, and personal responsibility. I believe in the hearts of every American, from our settlers to our CEOs of companies today, they believe in those too, whether they admit it publicly or not. You can quote Bible verses on the topic of homosexuality and believe it is a sin. I can disagree with the literal and contextual translations of those verses and argue that it is not a sin. We could go back and forth. But what good does that do for me and you? We love each other and hope for the best for each other. We do not wish poor health upon each other. If we argue disrespectfully, we are hurting and possibly ruining our friendship/relationship, right? Is it possible to agree to disagree and treat people with differing opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints with mutual respect? I believe it is possible, because I experience this almost daily. I have friends and family members who have different religious and political views than myself and yet we still love each other and get along. I personal don't want gay marriage to be a topic in politics and/or this election. But I realistically know that it is going to be a topic, do do I ignore that? I don't think I can. I can't sit idly by if there happen to be two men or two women who love each other and have a loving, committed, monogamous relationship and one of them ends up in the hospital and their partner cannot see them? That doesn't seem fair to me. Does it to you? There are numerous stories of gays who had been together 20-50 years and one passed away and the remaining partner was left with nothing in regards to their deceased partners assets or benefits, or a say in end of life decisions. Does that seem fair to you? It doesn't to me? Personal choices that someone makes that do not physically harm me is none of my business and certainly not the government's business. Gays want gay marriage to become legal so they can have the same benefits and rights that every heterosexual married couple has in regards to taxes, and visitation rights at a hospital. They want civil gay marriages just like there are civil heterosexual marriages. It boils down to a civil rights issue. With separation of church and state we shouldn't be including all moral issues as a role for the government to be involved in if there is no physically harm caused to anyone. Moral issues like murder are and should be included in the role of the government because there is physical force and harm caused to another individual. To close, I want to come back to my point and say that I think both sides are focusing their attention on the wrong issue. The issue should be about mutual respect, and the role of the government in our personal lives whether the issue is homosexuality, marijuana, income tax, and education of our kids.