As I read the reports about Maine, a U.S. state where people have voted to overturn a law legalising same-sex marriage, my blood begins to boil.

Firstly, why on earth do people feel the need to control other people’s lives like this? In what way do same-sex marriages harm “traditional marriage”?

Right now, if I wanted to, I could marry a woman - even one that I had just met today - for money, for social status, strictly for tax purposes, or worse - simply because I had gotten her pregnant. “Traditional” marriage is in no way sacred - 50% of all marriages in America end in divorce.

So why then do people think they should stop gay marriage? How will the fact that a gay couple got married possibly affect the validity or importance of a “traditional” marriage?

The answer is simple: it won’t. This is just about bigotry and ignorance.

My second problem with this is: since when do people vote on civil rights? Should be put slavery up for vote? How about women’s rights? Oh wait, women might have a chance to protect their rights as they make up 50% of the population (so long as they are allowed to vote).

But voting on the civil rights of a minority is wrong. Democracy is 2 wolves and 1 sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

I am glad to be in England, where at least we have civil partnerships available for all gay couples (but not to be called ‘marriage’). But there is still a long way to go in my country, in America, and in the rest of the world before we can truly say that gay people have equal rights.

“If it be admitted that a man possessing absolute power may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, why should not a majority be liable to the same reproach? Men do not change their characters by uniting with one another; nor does their patience in the presence of obstacles increase with their strength. For my own part, I cannot believe it; the power to do everything, which I should refuse to one of my equals, I will never grant to any number of them.”

Alexis de Tocqueville, “Tyranny of the Majority,” Chapter XV, Book 1, Democracy in America