I have spent days and nights thinking of every social, political, economic, biological and religious reason to support why gay marriage should be illegal. I must confess that I am not a fan of organized religion of any denomination because I feel that generally speaking it excludes--rather than include people who do not look like them, think like them, dress like them or love like them.

I don’t want to offend anyone with my line of reasoning or logic, so I think that it is only fair that I share the core premises of my argument of which I think are the most important factors that should determine whether certain human behaviors should be legal or illegal.

In my opinion, the essential core factors that all laws, ethics, and morals should be based on are whether or not a certain act:

A. Prevents another human being from reaching his or her full potential in terms of academic and professional opportunities. I think that every person in a civilized society should be given a political and economic foundation that provides them with the proper intellectual and social tools to build their passions, dreams and goals—which in turn enlightens, advances, and evolves human societies further.

B. If an act, in any way physically, emotionally, socially or psychologically harms or exploits another person’s life chances in having an opportunity to be his or her highest and best self should be illegal.

C. If an act knowingly or intentionally reduces the chance of raising, producing, or socializing another human being from having the opportunity to be a compassionate, empathetic, and inquisitive person of integrity who respects others.

Based on this line of logic what would be a good reason why gay couples should not be allowed to get married?

The only reason that I could conclude from this argument is that gay people should not marry because of the same reason that parents can’t marry their children or why brothers and sisters should not marry each other. Biologically speaking, the recessive genes have a higher chance of becoming dominant and there is a higher likelihood of producing a severely developmentally delayed human being; not to mention the complexity of emotional and psychological issues.

Well, since gay couples cannot biologically produce a child together this eliminates this idea.

Two middle aged, white women walked into a restaurant where I was dining the other day, touching and holding hands intimately. Two young, dark-skinned little girls between the ages of 7 and 9 walked next to them. One of the white women was carrying another dark skinned, baby girl around 9 months with patches of hair with pink barrettes in a pouch on her chest.

I watched the girls tell their moms about their day in school and fight over the red crayon. I watched their moms kiss them on their foreheads, share their food ,and laugh hysterically at their antics.

I noticed how some people looked at this family in disdain. I heard a mother seated in the booth behind me whisper to her child not to stare at the gay couple and explained that their “type of relationship“ was not normal and that God would judge and punish them for their sins.

I thought to myself that one day those three little girls would grow up to understand how certain people such as Ms. California would tell them that the sanctity of marriage should be between a man and a woman instead of two people who love and respect each other. This logic is going to be a flawed, painful lesson for these 3 little black girls who appeared to be adopted into a family who loves them.

These little girls will not see their two moms as being biologically or spiritually inferior to heterosexuals, but the people who read them bedtime stories, washed their clothes, helped with their homework and kissed them good night. They will simply be the two people who loved them more than anyone else in the world. In my eyes, and possibly one day in those little girls eyes—those two, gay white women could have only come from heaven to give them the love they need to have a chance at happiness.

There are so many children who live in foster care, or homes with abusive or negligent parents who would give anything in the world to be as lucky as those three little girls showered with love from their parents. A love that is so powerful that it crosses racial and physical boundaries that nourishes the harmony and security of everyday life.

So here is my conclusion: Marriage should only be reserved for people who are emotionally and psychologically mature. Marriage should only be for two people who are compassionate, loving, empathetic, and unselfish. Marriage should only be for two people who are non-judgmental, fair-minded and respectful of each other and everyone else in the world. Marriage should be the sacred institution of people who know how to truly love and will use that love to make the world a better place.