People go through life kissing frogs and dating losers until they find “the one.” They’re finally ready to make a lifelong commitment to this person until the state government tells you “No, you can‘t marry the person you

love.”

A percentage of Americans aren’t legally allowed to marry the person they choose. They can’t have a legally recognized wedding, experience documented marital bliss and all the fights and agony that come with it. Don’t they have the right to be married like the rest of us?

Well, California is one step closer to making that a reality. Feb.7 at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, a vote of 2-1 decided the Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional.

The court stated Proposition 8’s only goal was to go against the U.S. Constitution and lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California.

In 2008, 52 percent of voters supported Proposition 8 and fought the California Supreme Court after it temporarily legalized gay marriage. What about the opposition?

It’s hard to believe anyone would be so against two people in love showing their affections and getting married.

Sweet Lewis, graduate English student, said she understands the pressures of wanting to marry someone others say you shouldn’t.

“I think everybody should be able to marry whoever they want to. In my family, I was the very first one to marry a white guy out of my race, so my parents really hated it. I know how it feels not to be able to marry someone you like,” Lewis said.

Most people who support Proposition 8 use religion as their justification.

I was raised Catholic and attended private schools until college. Did I miss the part in the Bible where God or Jesus said to hate someone and treat them differently?

The Bible may have frowned upon same-sex marriage, however, it supported a man marrying a woman and her slave (Genesis 16), a female war prisoner forced to marry the male captor (Numbers 31:1-18, Deuteronomy 21:11-14) and a woman forced to marry her deceased husband’s brother (Genesis 38:6-10). Yeah, let’s pretend all that’s fair.

Churches may go against “Jesus loves everyone” and refuse to facilitate a same-sex marriage, but that does not give the government courts the right to ban it altogether.

Separation of church and state is one of the building blocks of our country. Gay marriage isn’t a moral argument, it’s a constitutional one.

The Constitution is all about protecting our civil and equal rights, not placing one person’s rights over someone else’s.

The last time I checked, the word equal was defined as “the same as.” Equal rights should mean just that.

There will always be controversy surrounding this issue, but as long as the people are given free speech and the right to vote, equality will be fought for.

It’s 2012. Our society has made leaps and bounds in the fields of science and technology, we’ve come so far in giving religious and racial acceptance; why are we so hesitant to give those same rights to another group of individuals?

It’s up to the Supreme Court to make equal rights equal.

Ashley Jung can be reached at [email protected].