The President, the man that was elected to protect our individual rights, is trying to outlaw the marriage of gays in the United States. This, coming from the leader of the supposedly “free” nation, is ridiculous. Everyone is entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but what Bush is proposing limits the essential freedoms of the American people that only happen to be homosexual.

Love doesn’t care about someone’s gender, so why should our president? If someone loves another person, then why should they be limited by gender? As small children, we are taught to value someone because of their personality, not what they look like on the outside. Last time I checked, gender is what someone is, not who they are.

Although many see same sex marriages as something that will corrupt society, ruin children, and destroy the sanctity of marriage, what will truly corrupt society is the intolerance of homosexual people. They are human just like everyone else. They, too, deserve rights. The fact that our government won’t acknowledge same sex marriages goes against our constitution, which states that everyone shall be equal. The way that homosexuals are being treated is definitely not equal.

Secondly, those that are against same sex marriages say that these unions will cause the children raised by gays to become depressed, confused, and basically ruined because they have no “true” parental influence. To be a good parent, it doesn’t matter what a person’s gender is. If someone cares enough about a child and provides for them, then they are a good parent. It has nothing to do with their sexual preferences. There are plenty of straight people that make lousy parents. What your orientation is does not dictate whether or not you are a sufficient parent.

Marriage is supposed to be between two people that love each other and pledge themselves to one another. If this is upheld, then the sanctity of marriage will remain unchanged and unmarred. All that matters is the love two people feel, and if they feel so strongly, then they have the right to show their devotion to one another via marriage. They deserve the right to have their union acknowledged. In fact, same sex marriages are already legal in the Netherlands and their first legal homosexual marriage was in 1998.

The United States is the nation where people flocked to in order to be free, but now, the U.S. is not providing promised freedoms. The U.S. should be spearheading the movement towards equality and tolerance, not holding it back.