In June of 2015, the US
Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, with a 5-4 decision,
essentially delineating that gay marriage enjoys equal status with traditional
marriage between man and woman.
This issue is so loaded with
heavy paradoxes, one wonders how it continues to float.
Many supporters of the ruling
were beaming with almost unexplained bliss and pride, like heaven had been
opened to them. No problem there. Man is known to welcome temporal bounty like there
Is no tomorrow, or like it is the be-all and end-all of existence.
Yet the cause of happiness
can be explained in such a manner as to show the resultant over-celebration as
undeserved because the decision was far from convincing, though still historic.
Far from being unanimous, a 9-man court of the US all appointed for life by the
US president, religiously divided into 6 Catholics and 3 Jews, voted 5-4 to
grant equal status to gay marriages with traditional marriages the latter
strongly espoused and supported by all major religions, like Catholicism and
Judaism. And if I may add, equal only with regard to enjoyment of benefits
dispensed by the Federal bureaucracy. They could not have ruled about its
cultural, religious, and yes, even biological ramifications, because after all
that would be obviously beyond the purview of that court.
Anyway, the hairline decision
came because 2 Catholic court members decided to break away from traditional
teaching of their religion. Kennedy many say was simply being true to form,
taking sides away from traditional or classical truths espoused by the
citizenry. The other, Sotomayor, most likely because she is most liberal having
been appointed by the Obama administration, to represent two minorities, women
and Hispanic.
The more impactful thing here
is that because of the role of the US in the world, this will open the
floodgates for the rest of the world with regard to this issue. A paradox
indeed, germinated by an unconvincing decision riddled with dissension not only
from the court’s own members, but also the citizenry. Although the recent
trends as reflected by survey polls now show majorities of people around the
world favoring gay marriages, not only in the US but in other parts of the
world.
As a species we continue to
be an enigma.
