Catholics For More Equality

Just so you know, I’m mad. Angry. Blue in the face and seeing red. Why? Because I’m a victim of terrible injustice, that’s why.

The villain?

Why, everyone’s favorite villain, of course. The bully du jour.

The Catholic Church.

Yep. You read that right. I am so ticked right now.

We all know how the Church hates divorcees, demeans every woman in the universe, yells at people who use contraception, and refuses to let gays get married. The Church treats people so unfairly, it’s not even funny. You’d think their main purpose in life is to make people miserable or something.

And they don’t even care. Call the Church homophobic, and they just laugh. Call them misogynistic, and they shrug their cappa magna’ed shoulders. Accuse them of being orthotoxic, and they cross their arms like some union thug and smile all tough like. They are so all those things, and worse. All they care about is stuff like Tradition, and Truth, and Divine Revelation. Pfft. Like all that matters.

But my situation is so much more unfair than any of the others.

You see, my sister and I want to get married. To each other. I love her, she loves me, and we want to be happy together. But the Church says that we aren’t “free” to be married, because we’re related. Sounds like a man-made law to me. Familial marriages are Biblical, you know – how else did we all descend from Adam and Eve? Think about it.

Listen – marriage is just a social construct that provides benefits for both parties involved. In today’s day and age, it doesn’t really mean anything else. It’s a piece of paper that would allow us to share property, visit each other in the hospital, and enjoy hundreds of other perks that other married people have, like have a bridal registry and stuff.

We would provide a stable home for any children we choose to bring into the world. After all, everyone knows that children thrive best when raised by a mother and a father, so I don’t see why the Church would have any objection. One man, one woman. See? We have that issue covered, one in which the so-called gay marriage crowd falls short. You’d think that would be a plus for us. But nope – no sale for the consanguinophobic Church.

And another thing – Jesus preached love, right? Well, we love each other, and we love Jesus, and Jesus wants us to be happy. Refusing us our desires is very unloving. We feel that being married would show the world that we are truly committed to each other.

What’s that? You think we should just settle for civil unions? Not good enough. If marriage is defined as between one man and one woman, then I don’t see why we should settle for anything less. It’s not as if we’re looking to redefine the institution like some others are intending. We just want to have our love for each other recognized and validated. By every.single.one.of.you.

And trust me – our marriage would in no way have any impact on marriages between two unrelated people. We’re not interested in reforming society, or forcing anyone to change their views or opinions. Society won’t be affected one bit. And besides – are unrelated married people so insecure about their own relationships, that they would feel threatened by my sister and me? That’s quite an indictment, if you ask me. Marriage between unrelated people is in enough trouble anyway, with the high divorce rate and rampant adultery – in comparison, our marriage is just a drop in the bucket. There’s no way we’d be affecting marriages between unrelated people. In fact, two committed people in love who are married is a good for society. At least, that’s what the Church has always taught.

We just feel we should have the same opportunity to marry as any other two people who are in love. That’s what Prop 8 Judge Walker says, and if it’s good enough for him, it should be good enough for the Church, too.

The Church’s intolerance is wrong and hurtful. Hurtful to me and my sister, and all the other family members throughout the world who only want to be happy. And married. To each other. We want to come out of the shadows, publicly declare our love and not be persecuted anymore.

Drawing on the rich tradition of Catholic social justice action, grounded in the Gospel message of Love, American Catholics are among the strongest supporters of equality of any religious group in the U.S. Yet the official voice of the hierarchy increasingly advocates discrimination and opposes reasonable measures to secure basic freedoms for people like me, who want to marry their sister. I believe this trend is a repudiation of Catholic belief in the inherent dignity of every person. It further contradicts the American values of fairness and equality for all citizens.

Therefore, in response to the Church’s injustice, I’m forming a group, called Catholics For More Equality. It’ll be on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, DirecTV, Plurk, YouTube, iTunes, Technorati, Huffington Post, MTV, the View, Blogger, WordPress as well as a full page ad in the National Catholic Reporter. Write your congressman. Email your bishop. Your support would be so greatly appreciated, to right this grievous wrong.

Thanks for allowing me to rant. And thank you for your help and support. Together, we can right this wrong and break down the walls of intolerance.

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