New York City's Michael Bloomberg has some pretty moving words for London politicians, especially since he has so strongly backed his constituents' embrace of gay marriage. According to NYC's mayor, as long as government maintains the responsibility of administering marriage licenses, there ought to be equal treatment. Stating that he understands the concerns that the current Parliament might be dealing with — fear of loss of religious freedoms or whether or not "civil union status" is enough for same-sex couples, he straightforwardly argues, "In the end, a majority of our legislators agreed that civil unions would relegate same-sex couples to second-class status — and that in approving marriage licenses, government should not discriminate between sexes."
His honest and revealing essay published in the Guardian frankly addresses concerns of those people who might not be opposed to gay marriage for social reasons, but instead, for political ones. Bloomberg points out that there are wonderful business incentives for welcoming more diverse families, and that, when Obama endorsed same-sex marriage, Americans didn't vote him out of office. In his simple clearcut piece, the most compelling reason Bloomberg gives is because it means being on the right side of history: "Among younger Americans, (the decision) isn't even close: more than 80% of 18- to 29-year-olds support the freedom to marry. They will define the future. And just as young civil-rights activists in the 1950s and 1960s ended decades of discriminatory laws against African-Americans, today's young people will do the same for gays and lesbians." If civil liberties isn't enough of a reason, then we don't know what is. (The Guardian)
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