The following is by a friend who is from Mt. Airy:
"I feel that not weighing in on this would be very wrong of me. For years I have watched this debate, at first as an unaffected individual before I came to the realization about myself, and later as a young man dealing with the ramifications of being gay and growing up in rural North Carolina. Today I have so many mixed feelings.
Just over a week ago I proposed to my lover of almost three years. He and I have shared our lives together: our hopes, dreams, needs, wants, bills, bonuses, families, happiness, sorrows, our lives. I know that there is no other person on this earth who can bring out the goodness and the positivity that he found hiding deep in the heart of this bitter cynic. Because of him, I believe in happiness, in hope, and in true love. One day i am going to marry him, legal or not, whether I am told by some elitist politician that it is acceptable for me to be joined to the only person who has ever made me believe in my future or not.
My feelings are mixed because I am deeply ashamed of the way my people behave, all of my people. North Carolinians should be ashamed! Regardless of how you feel about gay marriage, the amendment that passed is completely unacceptable. For the over one million people who voted for it, if you made your decision based on the gay aspect without looking into how it affected every other person in the state you do not deserve the right to vote. And to all of those that did not vote, some 4 million individuals, the right is there to be exercised and the only acceptable reason to not vote on an issue of this magnitude is the absence of knowledge, something very easily remedied considering you are reading this on the internet.
Homosexuals combat the Bible with hateful taunts and claiming that depending on just the Bible to defend a particular view point is small minded, but do we do ANYTHING to fix that? Why should anyone listen to us if all we are doing is trying to scream our message louder than anyone else? Fuck, I don't even want to listen! One of the things that I see most often is a powerful sense of condescension when we address objections to gay marriage. I ask all my gay family, do you listen to people when they condescend to you? And in my head I hear all of your voices saying FUCK NO! So why should ANYONE listen to us if that is all we are doing?
I love my life, I love my gay family, I love my straight family, and God help me I still love my state and I still love my God. But I also love my Fiance. I love the man that will one day be my husband and it is my fervent wish that I get to call him that without looking around to make sure I'm not going to offend anyone, and that I get to do that in my lifetime.
To answer [redacted]'s original question: How does gay marriage affect someone's livelihood? Marriage in general is a multi-billion dollar a year industry. The marriage market and the housing market are the two largest indicators of the state of the economy, not just in America, but world wide. Weddings are directly related to food service, clothing production, botanical industry, furniture, travel, music service, cleaning crews, officiates, stationary, the list goes on and on. The average cost of a wedding is $20,000 (
www.theknot.com). The number of gay people in the country really cannot be determined due to people not being able to be open about themselves, however there were 18,000 same sex couples married in California before the passage of Prop 8. Imagine if JUST those couples had traditional sized weddings. Now multiply that by 50...that ladies and gentlemen comes to 18 billion dollars. Also, that doesn't even include wedding registry. I bid you all good night."
