Why discriminate?

When browsing through articles in the Mercury News, I found that many topics did not spark any of my interests. After clicking around for a good twenty minutes I came across the special reports category and was intrigued by the title, "We are family, too: Vietnamese gays and lesbians join San Jose's Tet parade". I choose to discuss this article because I am very passionate on the topic. After the passing of Prop 8 I felt ashamed of California. It was the first time that I didn't want to be a part of what was happening politically. The article was not solely based on gay rights, however, on the "coming out" of many Vietnamese gays and lesbians. A young girl, Annie states in the article that "in Vietnamese and many Asian cultures there is a strong held tradition that women should marry and have children". This makes it especially hard for younger people of Asian decent to open up to their families about who they are. Annie was just one of many who joined the Tet parade as a proud lesbian. This was the second time in the parade's history that gays and lesbians participated in the celebration by marching openly. This event was a huge mile stone for the Vietnamese culture to pass because it opened the eyes of many to see that homosexuality is not something to be ashamed of but accepted and embraced. This topic is extremely important to me because, we the people, do not have the right to decide who should or should not get married. Love can be between a man and woman or a man and a man. Who are we to decide?