Ask Amanda

Dear Amanda,

I believe that God says homosexuality is wrong. Next Tuesday in Virginia there is a vote for a marriage amendment to define marriage explicitly as between one man and one woman. Is it the state's duty to enforce that belief?

-Voting on Tuesday

Dear Voting,

First, I will sidestep the controversial issue of God's condemnation of homosexuality and assume (correct me if I'm wrong) that you would not be posing this question if you had any smidgen of a doubt as to the wrongness of homosexuality and God's personal yet divine attitude towards it. Assuming that your question principally pertains to the duty of the states and assuming that you will grace the ballot box with your presence, I will attempt to give you a complete voting guide in 500 words or less.

So, is it the state's duty to enforce that belief? This state's duty - let's call it politics - is an interesting phenomena. At times, our political beliefs lie dormant only to be outed when we come in contact with adamant opposition. Other times, especially during election seasons, these personal political views get co-opted by politicians eager to condense our complex set of life experiences into a fifteen-second TV spot. (Hopefully) your political outlook is more complicated and intricate than any straight party line. And that is reason enough to seriously oppugn campaign platforms or amendments that oversimplify in an attempt to reinforce the status quo.

Ultimately the answer to your question lies in the question itself. Is it the state's duty to enforce that belief? The answer depends on your own belief of the role of government. On one hand, if you believe that the state's role is to enforce socially deemed values as standard in order to protect traditions, families, and individuals, then certainly you should support laws that allow the state to function accordingly. On the other hand, if you regard the state as primarily responsible for ensuring equal human rights and protecting minority positions against the status quo and the elite patrons who promote it, then vote against the marriage amendment and be grouchy about its proposal in the first place.

On the third hand, maybe you're just suspicious of politics in general because trivial little ideals like truth and justice get in the way of power and profit. If human nature is inclined towards corruption, then the institutions they create can't help but decay (in the moral sense of the word). And if systems prove unjust and discriminant, then the leaders that serve them are equally prone to prejudice and absolutism.

Attractive defeatist tendencies aside, I find beauty and hope in pushing ideas beyond 15 seconds of airtime. When you go to the polls, take all this into account and heed the wise and empowering wisdom of my grandma, "You must know".

-Amanda