It’s great to be a man in this country.

At 16 years old, before we’ve figured out what has gone crazy with our bodies, we get keys to cars. At 18, we sign papers that says the government can put a gun in our hand, send us wherever and order us to destroy our enemies. Three years later, we can have a drink without being asked for identification!

As we get older, we have better paying jobs, we’re chosen first for most positions and the bigger our bodies and muscles get, the better things are for us. We can have the pick of the proverbial litter of anyone we want to date, talk to, or walk over.

We then have the loudest truck on the block, the biggest house and the best looking partner to spend our lives with. If we’re in the military, we get that snazzy parade when we come home and everyone loves us!

It’s fantastic to be a man in America unless you’re a gay man. Then things change.

The posters of hot guys in your locker are suddenly “dirty” and “obscene” but the posters of Victoria’s Secrets models in the guy’s locker next to you are okay. Every action is scrutinized from glancing at another man in friendly hello to looks that last longer than another man is comfortable with and life only gets worse from there.

It’s more difficult to get into the military and not have to endure hazing by your fellow soldiers. If you survive boot camp and become an officer, you can only do so by hiding who you truly are. Your civil rights disappear almost completely.

Suddenly, being a man in America isn’t quite as great. Let’s say you meet someone at a nice church social (yes, even gay people to go church!) and you spend the next 15 to 20 years of your life with that person. What would be the next logical step after a long time with the same person? Marriage?

Perhaps if you were a heterosexual man, but because you are “different” somehow, that’s not in the cards for you. Suddenly, the right that you have as a citizen to marry whomever you please goes right out the proverbial window.

All over Martin, I have seen those little stand-ups with the slogan about marriage being “threatened” by men and women in this country who would like to enter into a sacred union with their longtime partners under the blanket of security and legitimacy that marriage provides their heterosexual brothers and sisters.

Every time I see one of them, I get this gnawing of disgust in my stomach. Could someone tell me when the act of loving another person became a threat?

Bible-Beaters, now’s the part when you throw the Bible at me and begin to rant!

You might want to wait about that if you’re a) wearing a cotton/poly blend shirt (Deut. 22:11), b) full from that pepperoni pizza (no pork – Deut. 14:8) or c) heading over to Red Lobster after church (Lev. 11:10-12) because there is no little or big sin, just sin in general, and a mirror, not a microscope, might be of better use.

There is no threat to marriage by expressing love. The true threat to marriage is the total disregard of the vows taken during the ceremony. It isn’t the gender of those people, but their inappropriate actions and complete lack of respect for their partners that is the true threat to the concept of marriage.

Perhaps the actual threat of allowing gay people to marry is that America would have to recognize them as people with the same rights as everyone else and could no longer legally discriminate against them. They would have to reform the ridiculous “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and allow us the same rights and privileges that come with marriage.

The home of the free would have to treat fairly one of the very last legally discriminated groups who are required to pay taxes, get drafted, go to war and die for their country just like the normal people.