The winds of change are blowing in this world that we are living in. If you don’t watch the news (like me) you may have missed some of the things happening, especially as they pertain to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community. Thankfully, I have Common Ground (the campus LGBT Gay-Straight Alliance) members who do watch the news that keep our Facebook page flooded with articles of goings on around the nation and world.
One of the biggest things to have happened (on October 6th), is the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear appeals to cases with decisions to strike down gay marriage bans. What this means is that the decision goes to the highest court that has already made a decision (in all cases in favor of allowing gay marriage.) According to a report by NPR, the Supreme Court did not legalize same-sex marriage in all states, but the effect of the decision will be just that. After the decision was passed, there were seven states added to the list of states that allowed people in same-sex relationships to get married, which brings the total number of states to around 30. I say around because some states are affected by the decision, but it is unclear if they will allow same-sex marriage or not. Also, by the time you read this, more states could have made decisions to allow homosexual couples to wed.
Pope Francis stated in 2013, when posed with the question of homosexuality, “Who am I to judge?” On October 13th, the Vatican said that “gay people have gifts and talents to offer the Christian community” and if you would like to watch the CNN report of this, click here. This may come as a shock to many because the Catholic Church has had a firm stance on many things for many years including divorce (not allowed or accepted), heresy (not allowed or accepted), and in more recent years, homosexuality (not allowed or accepted). Many of these things, and more, can even lead to excommunication from the Catholic Church. On Tuesday, October 14, the Church amended the statement saying they wanted to “provide” for homosexuals and offer them “support” as opposed to “welcoming” them originally. An official report will be issued at the end of the week addressing topics such as gays and lesbians, contraceptives, and many more. This will come from a group of 200 church officials known as Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family who have been having closed-door discussions for the last few weeks. There is a larger meeting planned for October 2015 to discuss the proposals in the report. In a recent 13WMAZ report, our own Sam Tarleton, Event Coordinator of Common Ground, was interviewed for his opinion on the matter. He said, “The Catholic Church [was] the last place he would go” if he were looking for a new church.
If this topic interests you, I would strongly suggest reading more on it to get a better picture of what all is occurring. The pieces cited in this article are a good place to start. After all, so much is going on that it is far beyond the scope of what I can cover in this piece. It is a great time to be alive because equality is on the way. Hopefully if you’re reading this, you believe that marriage equality is a constitutional right that should extend to everyone, regardless of sex, gender, or sexual orientation. If that is the case then it may be time to start planning some weddings. Grab your rainbow flags, mount the banners, and buy some gifts because (if it hasn’t already) gay marriage may be coming to a state near you!