Saving Marriage

The issue of gay marriage has come to the forefront of politics during the last five years. While the movement didn't have it's start in any specific place, it's first affirmation came with the decision handed down by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 2003 legalizing same-sex marriages. Saving Marriage, a documentary film directed by Mike Roth and John Henning, chronicles the political and social process in Massachusetts following the Supreme Court ruling.

Whether or not you believe in same-sex marriage, you should see this film. While the film is biased in support of same-sex marriage (as is this writer), it does present both sides of the argument. The film is very well made and editor Paula Gauthier has taken Roth and Henning's film and turned it into an edge-of-your-seat, waiting-to-see-what happens, movie even though the outcome has already been well publicized.

One of the biggest obstacles the same-sex marriage movement has to overcome is fear. Fear from very conservative people that feel that granting rights to homosexuals will somehow change their lives for the worse. It seems to me that 50 years ago, the ancestors of this same group of people had similar fears over the issue of race and desegregation. While homosexuals have never, as a group, been enslaved, we have been discriminated against and as things currently stand in most states in this country, we are second-class citizens in many respects.

The thing that makes "Saving Marriage" such an important film for everyone to see is that it provides hard and fast evidence that same-sex marriage does not, in fact, alter the lives of heterosexuals or their families in any way.

The ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court started things in motion in the state and a proposal for an amendment to the constitution to ban same sex marriage came up. In Massachusetts amending, the State constitution is a long process, and during the time that this amendment was in progress and being voted on by the legislature, same-sex marriage became legal. One of the most moving moments in the film came when State Representative Robert Lees, who had initially voted for the amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage, spoke and said, in essence, that over the past 18 months, same-sex marriage had become legal and had not shown any signs of adversely affecting the sanctity of marriage. How could he now vote to take away a right that someone already had?

This is the issue that people need to be aware of. It's not about the sanctity of marriage. Homosexuals are not out to destroy the heterosexual world. Homosexuals are not out to destroy the family unit. It's about civil rights. There really is no functional difference between a same-sex marriage and a heterosexual marriage as far as the public should be concerned. What goes on in the bedroom in either case is private and nobody's business in both cases and that is the way it should remain. What is important is the family unit and the declaration of love, whether it is a man and a woman, a man and a man or a woman and a woman. Marriage is a pact between two individuals; it is not a pact between two individuals plus their family, friends, enemies, employers, neighbors, Congressmen and State Representatives and so on. Truthfully, I don't want all of those people in my bedroom as I am sure most of them would not want me in theirs.

I think "Saving Marriage," which is better than any news report, better than any talk show, demonstrates this with hard concrete evidence. Yes, the film does not show the extremes of our LGBT community, but neither does it show extremes of the heterosexual world. I don't think we should or can judge each other by the extremes in any community. Yes, the film is biased. I don't think the Religious Right or the groups that severely oppose this issue feel motivated to make a movie about it. Regardless of this, "Saving Marriage" does present a very clear picture of the issue at hand and how it has affected one state.

No scientist would release a product to the world without first testing it out. Unfortunately with laws, we don't have that option of having a "test tube" society to try them on. However, in this instance, Massachusetts served as that testing ground. "Saving Marriage" is the documentary evidence following that test and I truly believe that if you want to make a judgement on this issue that is educated and informed, seeing this movie is one of the essentials to making that judgement. As the time nears for this issue to come before the public in the State of California, I hope that people will flock to see this movie and feed their minds before they cast their vote.