Journal #30

Civil rights is a historical movement that has been around forever. One of the main civil rights argued and that comes to mind, is voting. This was an issue that started when the first settlers came to the Americas. At first, only white men were given the right to vote, leaving everybody else out. The Civil War was monumental and granted the African American men to be allowed to participate in voting. Women were last to be given the right to vote, after proving for decades that they were more than capable and qualified. These civil rights are a part of our nation's history and not so much applicable to today's society. An issue that is attempting to become a civil right today is the right to gay marriage. This has become a major political issue that has been heating up in the last few years. Since January of 2013, nine states have legalized gay marriage. These include Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and Washington. The real beef of this sandwich is “is gay marriage a civil right?” I personally do not agree with this and do not think it is ones civil right to marry someone of the same gender. I say this first off because I was not raised to believe this. Secondly, if we make gay marriage legal, then it is more than likely that someone will want to push this even further. What if someone wanted to marry more than one person? Or what if someone said they were in love with their dog and wanted to marry it. The second one was extreme, I know, but my point is where would the government stop? My fear is if you open up this door, it will in return open up many more issues similar to and cause other people to try and push the system. In conclusion, civil rights of today have grown much more complex and controversial than the ones in our country’s past.