A Discussion of Freedom

By: Mady Brand

Same-Sex Marriage

Marriage is a religious concept and because of the presence of religion in the world,
became adopted as a concept of society. The traditional, biblical definition of marriage is the
union between a man and a woman1. The modern-societal definition of marriage, that the
LGBTQ community sees marriage as, is the union between two people who love each other.

There was a time when love had nothing to do with marriage and the first time a man
and woman, who would be wed, met each other was on their wedding night. Then, a man and
woman who fell in love, acted beyond tradition and got married2. With time, this idea of
marrying someone because you love them became added to societys definition of marriage,
reshaping how marriage is done. It is in this definition that LGBTQ community wants to be able
to participate in without fear.

To marry someone you dont love, to us, seems barbaric, but to the people who practiced
it, it was just how things were done. Its a good thing that we see this act as barbaric because it
means that we as a society have learned from it3. God made us all different, so that we can learn
from each other; there would be no learning and therefore no improvement if we were all the
same. There is something to be learned from LGBTQ people and those of them who want same-
sex marriage; perhaps what that is, is that God intended for the definition of marriage to change
with time.

However, its not fair to ask people to abandon everything they believe and to adopt a
new definition of marriage just because someone else thinks they should, and that goes for both
sides. Though there are those who see marriage strictly as the union between two people who
love each other, there are still those who hold traditional beliefs4.
 A Discussion of Freedom
By: Mady Brand

The Right to Refuse

When it comes to the decision of whether or not to serve someone because you are
religious and they are gay, or of another religion, or anything else that could possibly not agree
with your religion, you still ought to provide your service to them. To choose to publicly provide
a service, you choose to accept what comes with that service: the customer is always right. This
means that when someone seeks out your service, you provide it to them in the way they ask of
you. If you cannot do that, you should not be providing the service that you do. Generally,
liberals believe that you have the right to refuse, but not the right to discriminate6. Its one thing
to hold a belief for yourself, but its another to be intolerant of someone because they are not
living in accordance with your beliefs.

A wedding cake maker should not be legally able to refuse service to someone because
they are gay. That cake maker signed up to provide the service of providing their customers with
what they ask for: a cake for their wedding. It is their job to provide his customers with that cake.
If they find themselves incapable of producing a cake for someone because they believe they
dont deserve it due to their sexuality, they should not be providing such services. Its not about
stopping you from making wedding cakes the way you think they should be made, its that you
are making wedding cakes as a service and to provide a service means you dont get to
discriminate7. Same goes for wedding photographers or any other service for that matter.
 A Discussion of Freedom
By: Mady Brand

The Right to Refuse the Service of Same-Sex Marriage

When it comes to same-sex marriage itself, it should be up to the church, synagogue,

mosque, etc. as to whether they will provide such a service8. The biblical nature of a marriage is
the union between a man and a woman. So those houses of worship that hold the traditional
beliefs of the orthodox definition of marriage, could not marry two people of the same sex
because, by that definition, it could not be a marriage. On the other hand, there are houses of
worship that recognize and accept the more modern societal definition of marriage, that it is the
union of two people who love each other and that what is in the holy text was written in the way
it was to fit its time.

Neither religious people nor people who are gay want to feel that their beliefs are being
challenged or attacked. Keep in mind that marriage is just a word. If we took away the word,
we would only be left with concepts and the two concepts that are believed to represent
marriage arent the same thing, so if we only had concepts we wouldnt be arguing because we
wouldnt be talking about the same thing.
 A Discussion of Freedom
By: Mady Brand

Conclusion

The solution is tolerance. The religious, traditional believers need to learn to be tolerant
of the LGBTQ community and their desires to be treated as equals and for their marriages to be
treated as valid. The LGBTQ community needs to learn to be tolerant of religious traditionalists
and accept that religious people arent the enemy, they just have a different perspective.
Everyone just wants to be treated as human. Both sides need to recognize that marriage is being
defined differently, that a marriage to you is not a marriage to me. We need to learn to accept
everyone and their beliefs even though it means respecting the beliefs of someone from across
the aisle, because how can you expect for your views to be respected until you respect the views
of another5?
 Key

1. GENESIS 2 22.Then the LORD God made a woman from the side he had taken out of
the man, and he brought her to the man. 23. The man said, This is now bone of my
bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man.
24. That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they
become one flesh. (The Holy Bible)
2. Golde, the first time I met you was on our wedding day. - Tevye (Do you Love Me?
from Fiddler on the Roof)
3. (Steven Edinbows performance of Thomas Jefferson)
4. Marriage is a sacred thing, it is as stated in the bible: the union of one man and one
woman, but I dont have an problem with people who are gay. (Anonymous Interview)
5. MATTHEW 7 12. So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them,
for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (The Golden Rule, The Holy Bible)
6. (Liberal Panel)
7. If the First Amendment bars a state from applying an anti-discrimination law to the sale
of wedding cakes because they involve artistry, then bakeries could refuse to provide
cakes for an interracial or interfaith couple's wedding, a Jewish boy's bar mitzvah, an
African-American child's birthday, or a woman's business school graduation party.
(Pride Source)
8. Citizens... are concerned about being coerced into celebrating or participating as a
service provider in same-sex weddings or being coerced into treating same-sex
relationships as marriages. (Heritage)

Bibliography

ACLU, Colorado File Briefs for Gay Couple in Masterpiece Cakeshop Case. Pridesource,
www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=83532.

Anonymous. Personal interview. 1 Nov. 2017

Edenbo, Steven. Thomas Jefferson performance. 20 Sep. 2017

Liberal Panel. 19 Oct. 2017

Religious Liberty. The Heritage Foundation, www.heritage.org/religious-liberty.

Tevye. Do you love me? Fiddler on the Roof. 22 Sep. 1964