Ask yourself a question: How will gay marriage affect peoples' lives? If two women and two men, who are truly committed to one another, marry will people's lives alter or are they against gay marriage because the issue just makes them uncomfortable?

Today, the most commonly cited reason for outlawing same-sex marriage is the desire to protect the American family. A good and noble reason, but in order to make a legitimate argument to preserve the traditional marriage, we need to look at what the traditional family in America has become, and this argument is easily discounted.

If we try and legislate things that hurt the traditional marriage, then we also must outlaw divorce and adultery. Let's be honest, both of these issues have destroyed the sanctity of marriage, broken up families and hurt children more than same-sex marriages ever could.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm says she supports civil unions, but not same-sex marriage, joining the ranks of other politicians who have come out against it.

We will not be so presumptuous to try and guess Granholm's motives, whether she is afraid of the destruction of today's family or if she's just doing it to get votes. But Granholm and other politicians need to be explicit about why they are so adverse to committed, same-sex couples being married.

People are sensitive about these issues, and rightly so. It is easy to talk about banning same-sex marriage when you don't know anyone who is gay. When we are passing legislation that bans two people from getting married, remember that this isn't a issue in a vacuum. This is an issue about consenting adults being denied equal rights - not the decay of America.

Americans are not required to accept or even like same-sex marriages, but they are required to give people equal rights. This isn't an issue of politics, morals or religion, this is an issue of rights - rights denied, and discrimination.