People are still walking around stunned with stars in their eyes after that eventful midterm election. It could make a person proud to see people come out in droves to attempt to turn America towards a more progressive direction. That is, unless you’re gay.

If that’s the case then you get to endure America’s persistent distaste for your lifestyle. During this midterm another handful of states added amendments banning same-sex marriage, Tennessee being one of them.

There are a couple of factors to be assumed to attempt to understand the opposition to two people getting married. First is that the decision to ban gay marriage is based on morality, and second is that the morality is developed from religion.

Then the question is whether or not marriage is purely a religious institution. If it is, then religious affiliates should have full reign to say who can and can’t get married. And if that were the case then there would be no good reason to give benefits and tax breaks to two people just because they partake in a religious ceremony.

Obviously marriage is more than just a religious institution, considering that if two adults choose to, (provided that they aren’t the same sex) they can go down to the local courthouse and get hitched. To deny someone state and federal benefits based on sexual preference is discrimination. And the United States Department of Health and Human Services boldly says that discrimination is against the law. So call it a domestic partnership, a marriage, or anything else you wanna call it. But denying the benefits based on sexual preference is illegal.

The gay marriage issue is just one of many ways that state governments have attempted to regulate morality through religious ideology. The idea is if the Bible says homosexuality is bad, then it must be so. The homosexuality reference comes from the book of Leviticus where it also states in detail how to sacrifice animals to God. Animal sacrifice isn’t commonly done anymore, mainly because that’s just crazy. So why did prejudice against homosexuals stick around, but animal sacrifice go away? Is it because hate is an easy rule to follow?

There are plenty of nonsensical state laws based on bogus morality. A few of those involve alcohol, such as liquor stores having to close on Sundays. Sunday might be a holy day for some, for others it might just be a good day to buy a bottle Old Grand Dad and try to forget that the next day is Monday.

Another one is not being able to sell beer and hard liquor under the same roof. This law is just designed to make us look like backwoods madmen to tourists.

As idiotic as those drinking laws are, they’re still just regulating simple human wants. People have a choice whether to drink or not. Regulating lives based on homosexuality is immoral to basic human standards because homosexuality is not a choice.

Denying homosexual couples the same rights that heterosexual couples have is completely hypocritical in a nation that supposedly holds civil rights in such high regard.