Our petition to legalize same sex marriage

     Recently for my theology class, myself and a few other classmates did a project on the legalization of same sex marriage with regard to Catholic social teaching. We set up a table right outside the entrance to the school's cafeteria for a few hours and asked the people who were walking by what their opinion was on same sex marriage. We gave them some information on how Catholic social teaching would want a person to have the same rights as the rest of humanity, despite his or her sex, race, orientation, etc. If the person agreed, we asked him or her to sign a petition to legalize same sex marriage that we are sending to Ed Rendell, governor of Pennsylvania, and Tom Corbett, soon to be governor of Pennsylvania. Mind you, I go to a catholic college, so I expected the worst. But to my surprise, what we came to find, was a mix of reactions. We had some people react badly, of course. One older lady looked at our table and said "Are you crazy?" and walked away. Another person, a young guy, was blatantly rude to us and said "Absolutely not" right in our faces. But more often than not, we had some really great feedback. There were a few people, when asked to sign the petition, that responded "Hell yeah" and happily signed it. Another young man, after signing the petition, showed us a project he recently did on the rights of gay people and how to stop the malicious harassment that they are put under. By the time we were done, we ended up with over 300 signatures on our petition. Let me repeat that, over 300 people signed our petition. At a catholic college, nonetheless. I think that goes to show something: everyone deserves the same rights, no matter what orientation they are. No one should be denied that privilege. Isn't that what our country is about? It is time to wake up, Pennsylvania, and see the truth that is staring us all in the face.