Religious Freedom and Gay Rights: How to Co-Exist

Religious freedom versus gay marriage is a topic of hot debate (when it shouldn’t be) as well as a topic that is very important to me. Recently, Kim Davis, a former civil servant in Kentucky who was charged with granting marriage licenses, went to court to argue that her right to religions freedom permitted her to refuse to issue those licenses to same-sex couples, despite same-sex marriage being legal in Kentucky. According to Davis, she was forced to choose between her job and her faith. Shouldn’t the same sex couple have the ability to pick their faith too? People like Kim Davis scream ‘religious freedom’ but they’re actually the people limiting it.

Her case even caught the attention of Justice Thomas, who agreed with her and said that the Obergefell v Hodges (spoiler alert: that gives people like me the right to marry in every state) ruling should be re-evaluated. If this happens, I could be forced into a civil union instead of a marriage, which doesn’t come with the same benefits or responsibilities as marriage does. Gay marriage could be permitted on a state-by-state basis, which is essentially screwing over the first amendment of the US Constitution that says I can choose to not be religious at all. If I am not religious, why do I have to follow the rules of someone else’s religion? This would essentially demote me to a second class citizen, which is the issue at hand.

Original Photo From Timothy D. Easley, NBC News.

Marriage isn’t even inherently religious anymore since it is recognized by states. Kim Davis (pictured right, edited for hilarity) doesn’t bat an eye when heterosexual atheists get married, so this feels more like discrimination to me. People are going to have different opinions than you. Some people think I will go to hell and some people think I shouldn’t get married—and that’s fine so long as their opinions aren’t encouraging lawmakers to hinder my rights as a citizen. I served blatant homophobes at my retail job, I received Jesus pamphlets, and I choose to simply agree to disagree and serve them to the best of my ability because that is the job I signed up for and was paid to do.

It is not my fault that Kim Davis wants to throw a legal tantrum when she sees people with a different opinion or religion than her—she needs to grow up, put her big girl pants on, and internalize that the world is a diverse place with diverse ideas. My rights do not end where hers begin and vice versa. Christians like Davis make up less than 3% of religious hate crimes (which make up ~18% of all hate crimes, more than half of which are Jewish) while LGBT people make up 16.7% of all hate crimes. Religious freedom means it is for everyone, not just for devoted Christians.