Marriage should be about love and a permanent commitment between two individuals for purposes of raising a family and sharing assets and resources. Gender shouldn’t matter, it should be about commitment not what you do in the privacy of the bathroom or your bedroom.

People should be able to choose how they want to express their gender and their career. Many careers can benefit from people of varied genders in them. Females as police officers and construction workers, men as nurses and secretaries bring valuable perspectives to their respective careers of choice. Women should be free to wear blue jeans or suits and ties, men can wear certainly wear pink or even a dress, though outside of the Mennonites I don’t know of many people who wear dresses anymore.

Private, intimate behavior should remain private and respectful. Likewise, people should choose the gender they are most comfortable with and dress respectfully as that gender and retreat to the privacy of the restroom when needing to relieve themselves based on what their dressed to be in. Intimate behavior in the privacy of one’s own house should be careful and respectful, noting the life-altering consequences of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases especially as norms and laws around abortion are changing in America.

It’s true in politics you can’t be still on a moving platform and that stand still you fall behind. But the stakes are high when you take life altering decisions like the choice of intimate behavior and marriage. People in protest often don colorful clothing and signs to be noticed by the cameras, but caution should be taken not to offend or be trapped and injured by risky and bad behavior.

At the end of the day, pride should be about loving and respect, mutual commitment.