Don’t you have anything more important to worry about?

Some straight, homophobic people claim that their marriage or relationship is negatively affected by the legalization of gay marriage. This is absolutely absurd. Saying that a straight couple’s marriage is affected by a gay couple’s marriage is like saying that how much you like the meal you ordered at a restaurant is affected by the meal that someone at another tabled ordered. In other words, it’s a load of bullshit. There is simply no way that one affects the other.

At the restaurant, you don’t know the person at the other table and you weren’t eating their food. You probably didn’t even order the same item from the menu, and even if you did, your taste palette is completely different from the other person’s. Similarly, when compared to marriage, you can’t possibly know all the other people who are getting married or what their relationships are like. And, even if you do know a gay couple who is married, you are not a member of that relationship, so what happens in that relationship does not affect you, just like other straight couples’ relationships do not affect you.

You can only be affected by things you are involved with. The simple fact that you know there are gay people getting married somewhere in the world is not a reason to be bothered by it or even care about it. It is no different than the fact that you know other people are eating different kinds of food elsewhere. Yes, it happens. No, it has nothing to do with you. The only people who obsess about things that don’t affect them usually have some kind of mental disorder.

When you’re at that restaurant, you don’t even pay attention to what other people are eating. At the very most, you might notice a tray go by and say something like, “that looks good” or “I’m glad I didn’t order that!” But you certainly don’t remain fixated on whatever is on the tray. It’s some other person’s food, not yours. It slips out of your mind pretty quickly. You care about your own food and maybe that of the person you are eating with, but not some random person’s. So why would you even care who someone else is getting married to? Why would you become and stay so obsessed about someone else’s relationship? It’s just totally irrational. Get over it.

If you don’t like it, that’s fine. Nobody is forcing you to marry somebody you don’t want to marry, just like at a restaurant, there is nobody forcing you to order a meal you don’t want. On the same note, though, you also cannot force someone else to order a meal they do not want or tell them they can’t order something they like. In a similar fashion, it is wrong to tell someone else who they can or cannot marry. Doing so would be rude and disrespectful. It makes you sound like an asshole.

That’s really the point. Don’t be an asshole. Be respectful of other people, even (or, especially) if they have different tastes than you do. Don’t try to impose your preference on them. Mind your own business and let perfectly capable people make their own decisions based on what they know to be true about themselves. And if you really do find that you just can’t get something out of your mind, that’s probably your brain’s way of telling you that you should probably give it a try.

Related quote:

“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.” -Friedrich Nietzsche

Tags: analogies, diversity, gay marriage, gay rights, logic, marriage, nietzsche, repsect