Aziz for America
After President Obama’s historic declaration of support for marriage equality, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued a statement of his own. Recall that Senator Reid is a practicing Mormon – I think that this statement draws a careful line between his personal religious convictions and his liberal political principles.
My personal belief is that marriage is between a man and a woman. But in a civil society, I believe that people should be able to marry whomever they want, and it’s no business of mine if two men or two women want to get married. The idea that allowing two loving, committed people to marry would have any impact on my life, or on my family’s life, always struck me as absurd.
In talking with my children and grandchildren, it has become clear to me they take marriage equality as a given. I have no doubt that their view will carry the future.
I handled a fair amount of domestic relations work when I was a practicing lawyer, and it was all governed by state law. I believe that is the proper place for this issue to be decided as well.
Note the closing emphasis on state law – it is important that liberals accept the outcome in North Carolina as a genuine expression of the democratic will for that state, if they are to insist that legal recognition of gay marriage in the six states where it has passed (CT, MA, IA, NH, NY, and VT).
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