End the spiritual hatred against gay people

Mike and I were married on April 30, 2005. We got married in our church, the church where we met, by our pastor, with friends and family surrounding us.

We consider ourselves a married couple. I refer to Mike as my husband.

With the election coming up later this year I find myself listening to more and more rhetoric and propaganda against marriage equality or really anything that might support or come out positive towards gay people. I listen to people who want to be president say that they are outraged that under President Obama people are not allowed to practice the faith of their convictions. They talk about freedom a lot yet their definition of freedom does not include us.

It's an outrage that Mike and I cannot receive the same state and federal benefits as heterosexual couples. It's an outrage that we are somehow immoral while pious white heterosexual men seemingly have no interest to support the poor, the oppressed, the disadvantaged, or those who have lost their home after honestly doing everything in their power to keep their home. Their only concern is that marriage be kept solely a heterosexual privilege (as many marriages as heterosexuals want).

It's an outrage that only Mormon's or fundamentalist Christians should have the freedom to practice the faith of their convictions. Or that when they talk about freedom, they have no idea what that word means.

It's an outrage that all gay and lesbian people have to live as second class citizens. I was glad to read what the Portsmouth (New Hampshire) Herald editorial board wrote as they voiced their opinion to the state legislature to keep their hands of of gay marriage: "Lawmakers should count this newspaper's editorial board as strongly against repeal of same sex marriage, and we will loudly protest any efforts to turn anyone in New Hampshire into a second class citizen."

They are not alone. And I know Mike and I are not alone. I know that the vast majority of people truly believe in equality for all and that includes gay people.

We must speak truth to power. We must constantly speak out against supposed religious leaders and supposed lovers of Jesus who spend their entire lives demonizing gay people and trying to force us to be second class citizens.

We must come out publicly with our outrage.

We must stop supporting religious hierarchy's that deny the right to exist for gay people. There are an imaginable number of people who support marriage equality and at the same time give their money to religious institutions that rob us of our own spirituality and the right to live in it.

Meanwhile, gay people are tossed out of religious empires on a daily basis. Teens coming out face violence at home and immediate homelessness once coming out. Some take their own lives. Yet the vile speech against gay people continues, and it becomes even stronger when heterosexual people want more power.

Thank you for reading.