Oppression against Gay Marriages - Essay Example

Gay Marriage Nowadays gay marriage is a very significant and controversial issue. More and more progressive nations and governments legalize marriages between people of the same gender. LGBT movement is now active as never because they finally managed to attract attention of those who are concerned about the condition of sex minorities. Twenty first century will be the century of free love because everything that we see points in that way. Surely we must admit that it was preceded by the struggle for civil rights, racial equality, woman emancipation and feminist movement as well as anarchistic concepts such as punk rock and brotherhood free-love ideologies as in case with hippies. All those who fought for the right of equality have eventually led to the liberation of the last but not forgotten oppressed minority – gays. There is a saying that if you remember sixties that means you have never been there. (Hopkins) But we must remember and make this checkpoint a corner point of our essay. The sixties were the time of liberty as an idea. Not only idea because there have been many holy and horrible ideas up to that time and both of them been used as righteous. The 1960s was a time of a perfect idea with each its component representing ideological ideal or clearly saying perfection. A lot can be said of 60s as a history period or music period. Some say it was just civil feedback against the hard-boiled and violent aggressive behaviour of the government. I would like to say that 60s was a period of all this things together but most of all and generally it was the last and long expected battle between freedom and captivity, between reason and ignorance. During that time not only Afro-Americans, hippies in USA and French left-wing students declared their rights and announced their moral and ethical rules but also homosexual people upraised and attracted attention of general public. To be exact most of all this happened in America because of its leading status in any area of activity. San-Francisco, California, 1967. Beautiful time, magnificent place, Summer of Love in its most glorious and mighty prime. That is where it all started. Let us remember how Plato in his “Symposium” described love between young men as a most incredible and strong kind of relationship between two humans. It is truly one of the best pieces of love philosophy even nowadays. And things described in it by different members of this dialogue are thoughts of the most wise and reasonable people of that time (among them Socrates, Phaedrus, Aristophanes, Alcibiades) and that time is a couple centuries before Christ (Plato). There are more than needed number of examples in history starting from the ancient times but homosexuals really attracted attention as a community only in 1960s. The best place for them to be heard was a center of free love and hippie psychedelic revolution city of San Francisco which became a concentrated core full of wild, righteous, young and rebellious men and women. They were men and women of the new times. Man was born free, yet everywhere he is in chains (Russo). Wise words from a wise man. The final battle between sense and ignorance was fought in 1960s. Racial equality, freedom of love as Percy B. Shelly declared in his romantic poetry the revolt against the government tyranny and total cold war paranoia (Shelley). Turn on, tune in, drop out served as a motto of the époque created by Timothy Leary. Thus, every idea is new, everything new is an idea, it is a post-modernism of thought, it is the times of Harvey Milk in real life (Epstein). Those of you who saw “Milk”, whose film director is Gus Van Sent, can imagine what was going on. And those of you who did not see the film should clearly see it. So back to the subject – it is the times of Martin Luther Junior’s “Dream”. Just to show in what incredible time we always live I remind you that not so long ago President of the USA Barack Obama stated that he has nothing against the gay marriages. That, my dear friends, is a fact that talks for itself. Oppression against gay marriages consists mainly of religious regulations (Christian and Muslim) and stereotypic deep-rooted public behaviour. Those who are against gays and homosexuality in any form can comprehend love only as a material and carnal concept. Opponents of free love see love only as a tool of reproduction. Of course reproduction is a weapon of evolution and cannot be denied or substituted. But nevertheless modern opponents of gay marriages should answer some questions before they start securing reproduction and continue to fight homosexuality as a pervert and dirty attack on nature of things. First of all – is there or is not a problem of overpopulation? Are not there a lot of kids without parents? Are not there enough foster homes? So homosexuals cannot produce children but that does not necessary mean that they do not love each other and cannot raise an adopted child in prosperity and love. By doing so they give their child home and complete family because they will protect him and love as their own. In any case it is better than living in and orphan asylum and after that be doomed to a miserable existence. And children of gays will not automatically become gays too because human behaviour and impulses that affect it are not an equation. Most reasonable concept for me is happiness by right for those who are attracted to each other on any level. Anything that happens by approbation from two humans with these two humans is their free will connecting side by side so it can’t be forbidden or prohibited by any institution. Our civilization always oppressed minorities during all its history. It was a tool used to unite majority of people in their hate. As great writer Aldous Huxley accurately noticed in his “Ape and Essence” that the existence of any system primarily depends on its opposition against some kind of an enemy, inside or outside the system (Huxley). Minorities are always opponents except in cases when there is an outside enemy from different system. Hate and arrogance of people must be directed by government against those who are not significant and those who cannot fight back. By this policy those who are in charge of things make their own crimes and mistakes go unnoticed by general public which is busy beating anybody from minority. “Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.” (Redman) That is a saying of great man whose life was ruined because of his passion. So many great people are crushed and beaten just because of the way they are, just because they act independently as their own nature makes them act. Both men and women can and should for their own good and because it is their right feel free to love and be loved by any other human without taking in consideration his or her gender. That is the times in which we live now, times with ability to truly and sincerely express oneself towards other members of society. This are the times without bond and prejudices and I believe that with more time even echo of such anachronisms as racism and homophobia will be long forgotten because of its silly concept that men are not equal and they are not free to decide for themselves. Because any prejudices are a disease and I feel like it will be better to end our brief study with a refrain from a song: “Homophobia-the worst disease, You cant love who you want to love in times like these” (Chumbawamba 1994). Works Cited Shelley, P. Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments, London: E. Moxon, 1852. Hopkins, J. Bangkok Babylon , 2006, New York: Tuttle Publishing. Plato, Symposium, New York: Mundus Publishing, Chumbawamba , Anarchy, Homophobia , 1994, Woodland Studios. Redman, A. The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde, 1952, London. Huxley, A. Ape and Essence, Chatto & Windus, 1949, London. The times of Harvey Milk, director Rob Epstein, 1984, New Yorker Films. “Milk”Gus Van Sent, Axon Films, Groundswell Productions, Jinks/Cohen Company 2008 Rousseau, J. The Social Contract, Amsterdam: Chez Marc-Michel Rey. Read More