Connected to the day is the Declaration of Independence, which touts equality and notes that we have the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
When the Declaration of Independence was written, equality was reserved for white, landowning, heterosexual, Christian males. Great strides have been made to extend equality to everyone else. As we know, equality just for some is not equality. In recent times, we have seen many pro-equality court rulings and laws, including the Supreme Court ruling for the nationwide limited monogamous same-gender freedom to marry.
More people are coming out of the closet, and more allies are coming out in support of equality. More people are free to marry, and now we have more polyamorous and polygamous people speaking up for their rights.
But we’re still on our journey. Equality, liberty, and the right to pursue happiness are, in many places in the US, and at the national government level, still denied to LGBTQ people. Even more so, these rights are denied to the polyamorous and the consanguinamorous. The US still struggles with racism.
Let’s keep moving forward so that an adult, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender, is free to pursue love, sex, residence and marriage with any and all consenting adults, and not be denied liberty, employment, housing, or anything else.
This isn't just a philosophical thing or a principle. There are people, good people, who are hurt by ongoing discrimination, prejudice, and ignorance. There are people just being themselves, hurting nobody, and people who are in loving, healthy relationships who are being denied their rights, who have to hide who they are or their love for each other, who constantly endure people proclaiming that the love they share is sick or disgusting or makes them worthy of being subjected to abuse or death. There are teenagers who have simply behaved as normal teenagers with each other and haven't hurt anybody (including each other or themselves) who are being lied to and told that nobody else is like them and they are depraved. That's no way to have to live, it certainly isn't liberty, and it squashes the pursuit of happiness.
They need to know they are not alone, and there's nothing wrong with them.
We need independence from hate and ignorance. So let's keep evolving America, and encourage other countries to do the same.
![Non-Monogamy Diagram [I:FV]](http://www.obsidianfields.com/lj/nonmonogamy2.5.1.gif){kind=link}
How are we going to get the Federal Government to pass a law decriminalizing incest? We can do this while simultaneously punishing incestuous abusers. We are going to get hate, just like all other civil rights movement that have been successful.
ReplyDeleteIt’s currently a state by state issue. One way it could be done is a good test case in the courts. If the Supreme Court were to follow precedent, it would at least decriminalize Consanguinamory nationally, but also, hopefully, rule for full marriage equality.
DeleteI have another controversial question.
ReplyDeleteDo you think non consensual adultery should be a crime? (If yes, what should the penalty be?) I know you frown cheating like you said in The Fine Print.
I don’t think sex should be a criminal matter, even if it is cheating. Criminally prosecuting alleged cheating involves interrogating multiple people about private, personal agreements, conversations, actions, etc. ASSAULT should definitely be a criminal manner. But notice how difficult and invasive it is to effectively prosecute “sexual assault,” and multiply that many times over when it comes to consensual sex and people who have ongoing consensual relationships
Delete