If You Like It Then You Should Put a Ring On It, or Not Believe it or not: I dont believe in gay marriage.

I think marriage as defined by our collective consciousness as a nation relies heavily on a religious context, thus, its exercise must conform to a set of norms dictated primarily by either Christianity or the Muslim faith: in that one man and a woman enters into an agreement whereby they pledge mutual support and entail some very specific obligations that each party must fulfill. These obligations, while veiled in the subsequent secular codification of these religious constructs as an institution for the creation and care of a Family, necessarily include the proscription that a man and a woman, integral parties to create offspring, may be the only parties thereof. It is found in our Constitution, in our Family Code, and in the different administrative laws that are built as legal mechanisms to promote the welfare of the State. This leaves the question of gay marriage squarely in conflict with the prevailing social perception of what marriage is all about. I think it is safe to assume that while the gays and lesbians who are out are being tolerated by society, generally, attitudes towards the granting of full rights to them are still a matter of politics. Case in point: the passage of an anti-discrimination bill through congress is still forthcoming, there is a noticeable lack of any adoption mechanism to allow gay men and women to adopt jointly with their respective partners, and the very noticeable disinterest of our current lawmakers in filing a bill which would even vaguely hint of the possibility of gay marriage in the Philippines. The common reason for such roadblocks towards full equality regardless of gender lies with the very culture we participate in. People have attributed the Filipinos hesitation in enacting laws, which would protect a certain group of people specifically from a perceived injustice, to a sense of morality that may or may not be compatible with the ends sought to be achieved. The politics surrounding the gay marriage question stems largely from the publics inability to see past certain stereotypes, not about the LGBT, but about marriage and its place in the grand scheme of things. We have pinned a religious tail on a political donkey. The call for equality is clear: Members of the LGBT community must be given the right to marry whom they choose to marry.