OPINION: SUPREME COURT HAS RULED, LET’S STOP JUDGING

Melaleuca CEO Frank VanderSloot shares his opinion with EastIdahoNews.com on the historic same-sex marriage ruling handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court Friday.

I’ve long been an advocate that we use the definition of marriage to mean the relationship between one man and one woman. But I’ve also been an advocate that gay people ought to have the same rights as heterosexual men and women.

I’ve felt like we could do that by using a different term for that relationship. I’ve felt that they should be able to enter into a contract and a relationship just like heterosexual people but call it something different.

The Supreme Court decided that was wrong. We lost that argument. We’re not going to be able to change that but there’s some things I think we can change that will make the world a much better place and maybe make us better people.

I don’t think that we should be judging others and I’ve always thought we have no right to judge a gay person because that person is gay. We have no right. None whatsoever.

Being gay is not a choice. Somebody doesn’t say, “I’m going to be gay. I want to be gay. I’ve decided to be gay.” Sexual attraction for a gay person isn’t any different, I don’t think, than a heterosexual person. It’s not a decision we make. We’re attracted physically or we’re not.

We have no right to judge because they’re different than us or believe or behave differently. It’s never right to judge someone else because they have different boundaries than we do. What may be morally right for us is our own decisions and we should probably judge ourselves whether we stay within our boundaries.

I believe the world would be a much better place if there wasn’t so much judgment because of someone else’s behavior. We should love everyone, respect everyone — gay people especially and included. We can extend a hand to someone who is different than us and I believe that’s much more important than the definition of one word or another word.