Failure to Communicate: Gay debate misses point

All things considered, there's really just one thing that bothers me about the debate going on in our country over gay marriage. Some people are spinning their wheels over arguments that couldn't matter less and do nothing but fill the void present from their lack of something substantial to say. Really, I could say that there are two things that bother me: the point we most often address when debating this issue, and the fact that there are black people who oppose gay marriage. But they're actually the same problem.

The recurrent point we bring up in the gay marriage debate is the question of whether a person is born gay, or chooses to be gay. It's on this issue that many people say that allusions to the black struggle for civil rights don't measure up; a person doesn't choose to be black, but they do choose to be gay.

But it doesn't matter if a person chooses to be gay or is born gay. The vast amount of scientific study we have is pointing to the latter, but, again, it doesn't matter. If a person chooses to pursue a relationship with a male or female, they have that right. It doesn't matter if I'm genetically inclined towards attraction to the female form, or if I just choose to like women. It's my business, not yours.

I say that the two points I mentioned before are the same because the point of equality of the races is just that, they are equal. A person is born white or black, but if whites and blacks are equal then would it matter if a person could choose to be one or the other? There's no advantage to being one or the other. One is not better. One is not worse.

Full column here

I realized today that this is my only piece in this week's Carolinian. It feels like it's been more than a year since that happened. Writing for Go Triad and the N&R is taking up a lot of my time, so we'll see if I start doing three and four pieces a week again. Hopefully not.