BY DANIEL NORMAN

Recently, the New York State Senate rejected a bill that would have created marriage equality. Unfortunately, in present-day America, there are still citizens and public servants who harbor bigoted feelings toward homosexuals. Their irrational fear of homosexuality is no different than racism or anti-Semitism.

Bystanders in this situation, interchangeable with those who just “didn’t feel like taking a side” on segregation during the mid-twentieth century, are another problem. Needless to say, the debate over same sex marriage is purely an issue of civil rights and treating fellow Americans as equals rather than inferiors.

There is nothing gained through denying same-sex couples the right to marry. Denial, not same-sex marriage, is inherently flawed and must be fixed. In case you have reservations about the “normalcy” of homosexuals, or you’ve never met a couple before, I have, and I assure you there is nothing dangerous or different about them. Their presence in no way affected my parents’ marriage.

     Interestingly, the most recent U.S. Census statistics from 2004 show that couples who reside in New York are less likely to divorce than couples nation-wide, the latter’s divorce rate being 3.7 divorces per 1000 people. Other liberal, gay marriage-supportive states, such as Mass., Conn., N.J. and R.I., have low divorce rates (between 2.2 and 3.0 divorces per 1000 people) in common.

Contrast that with conservative, anti-gay marriage states, such as Mississippi, Alabama, Alaska or Arkansas, which have divorce rates ranging from 4.5 to 6.3 divorces per 1000 people. Ironically, it seems that legalizing same-sex marriage has not eroded the sanctity of heterosexual marriage, as detractors alleged it would. If anything, the institution of marriage has been strengthened.

Despite the prevalence of homophobia in certain sections of America, I believe full equality for homosexuals will be realized in our lifetime. Why? Bigoted and backwards Americans aren’t faring too well on the historical scoreboard. Slavery was abolished, suffrage and civil rights were achieved for women and African-Americans, and Barrack Obama was elected our first black president last year. By sheer momentum, if nothing else, civil liberties in America will maintain their forward march. Someday, same-sex marriage will be as much a non-issue as abolition and women’s suffrage are today.