Same-Sex Marriage Essay, Research Paper

The 8th Amendment talks about freedom of speech and freedom of living life. It is not true for everyone to live his/her life by his/her choice. When one ask someone, he/she will tell that they are in favor of equal rights for homosexuals. They will all say that gay should have the same rights in housing, jobs, and public accommodations and they should have equal access to government benefits and equal protection of the law. When someone ask them about gay marriage, all this talk of equality stops dead cold. Nearly three people in four in the U.S. oppose gay marriage, almost the same proportion as are otherwise supportive of gay rights. Additionally, many people continue to believe that homosexuality is about nothing but sex, considering it to be merely a sexual perversion. The reality is that homosexuality is multidimensional, and is much more about love and affection than it is about sex. And this is what gay relationships are based on: mutual attraction, love and affection and sex. Homosexual people should be allowed to marry.

Usually, people think marriage is an institution between one man and one woman. Well, that is the most often heard argument, one even codified in a recently passed U.S federal law. It seems that if the straight community cannot show a compelling reason to deny the institution of marriage to gay people, it should not be denied. The concept of not denying people, their rights unless people can show a compelling reason to do so is the very basis of the American ideal of human rights.

The second argument about same-sex marriage is that same-sex couples are not the optimum environments in which to raise children. Society allows murderers, convicted felons all sorts; even child molesters get married and bring children. The fact is that many gay couples raise children, adopted and occasionally their own from failed attempts at heterosexual marriages. Lots and lots of scientific studies have shown that the outcomes of the children raised in the homes of gay and lesbian couples are just as good as those of straight couples. (Questions and Answer about our marriage). Psychologists tell us that what makes the difference is the love of the parents, not their gender. Gay people are as capable of loving children as fully as anyone’s is. Gay men wish to have children for all the reasons that anyone else wants to become parents. Some want to share their loving relationship and affluence with a child who would not otherwise have experienced this privilege. Some wish to give to another generation the love and the blessings of a nurturing and devoted family that they experienced in their own upbringing, and still others wish to provide a child with the kind of loving environment that they themselves never received.

Some people argue about the immigration policy. Heterosexual persons have right to marry foreigners and live with their love one. If person is homosexual, he can not marry a same-sex partner from another county (Action Alert). No matter how long the couple has been together or how committed their relationship. It means that many same-sex national couples must live apart for long period of time, perhaps years or decades, until the foreign partner finds some other way to get a green card.

The common argument is about the gay relationships are immoral. The freedom of religion implied the right to freedom from religion as well. The Bible has absolutely no standing in American law, and because it doesn’t, no one has the right to impose rules anyone else simply because of something they perceive to be mandated by the Bible. There should be a moot point, “Separation of church and state.” Some religious leaders are the most forceful advocates of same-sex marriage. In Hawaii alone, many faiths such as the Reform branches of Judaism, Quaker, Buddhist, Episcopal and many individual Protestant Congregations are involved in the pro-marriage campaign (Rotello 16). On the opposite side of the coin, there are many faiths that condemn gay marriage. They feel that these people defy the Bible. Ultimately, the battle may not be so much about winning the right of marriage as about winning new level of respect for gay relationship.

The Gay marriages are highly emotional topics in the 90s. Many people feel that gay marriages would show heterosexual people how much two people can love each other even if they are of the same sex. Homosexual relationships are more than just to share those feelings with the person they love. “People have become used to the idea of defining gay people solely in terms of sexual acts,” says Gregory Herek, a research psychologist at the University of California, Davis. Many heterosexuals get very nervous when they have to think of gay people in terms of relationships, because it challenges the way they have always thought about gay people. They said, they are against gay marriage because they would not want to recognize stable gay relationships, says Herek(Gallagher24) When gay people say that this is a civil rights issue, homosexual people are referring to matters like the fact that they cannot make medical decision for their partners in an emergency. Instead, the hospitals are usually forced by state low to go to the families who may be strange from them for decades. If their partners are arrested, they can be compelled to testify against them or provide evidence against them, which legally married couples are not forced to do. In many cases, even carefully drawn wills and durable powers of attorney have proven to not be enough if a family wishes to challenge a will, overturn a custody decision, or exclude homosexual people from a funeral or deny us the right to visit a partner’s grave. As survivors, they can even seize a real estate property that they may have been buying together for years, quickly sell it at a huge loss and stick them with the remaining debt on a property they no longer own.

Society values those who have formed families of the social stability and productivity such constellations provide. A family may be described as a unit of interdependent and interacting persons, related together over time by strong social and emotional bonds. Its central purpose is to create, maintain and promote the social, mental, physical and emotional development and well being of each of its members. Same-sex couples from the same kind of family structures. It is now time to support same-sex relationship in the same way opposite -sex relationship is supported. By allowing the option of legal marriage.

Under the full faith and credit clause of the constitution, this also forces all state to recognize these marriages as far as federal benefits are concerned. Congress has approved a bill, the defense of marriage act that will allow states to decide whether to recognize homosexual marriages. The second part of the bill would define “for federal purposes” as the union of man and woman. Under such a definition gays and lesbians, even if they win the right to marry in Hawaii or elsewhere, would not be able to fill joint federal tax returns, claim federal pension, or survivor’s benefits, or be allowed to file for green care status (Gallagher21). Gay rights activists say absolutely.

The legal status of marriage rewards the two individuals with substantial economic and practical advantages. Married couples can file joint tax returns; Social security provides benefits for surviving spouses and their dependents. They can inherit money and property from one another without a will. They are immune from testifying against a spouse. Another advantage would be health insurance provided by employers. These benefits usually include the employee, whether of the same sex or not (Suzanne 15). Legal marriage is designed to protect intimacy in the relationship. It does this though the rights of visitation. Medical decision-making, survivorship, child custody, redresses for wrongful death, etc. Benefits are often granted to married partners because it is seen as a way of attracting quality employees. Frequent news reports confirm that same-sex life partners often have been denied a voice in their partner’s medical decisions, funerals.

It is very much a civil right issue. It has nothing to do with how performs the ceremony or whether an announcement is accepted for publication in the local paper. It is not matter of special rights to ask for the same rights that other couples enjoy by law, even by constitutional mandate. If same sex marriage is made legal the next generation would not think of is as taboo. It will just be another way of life. All of the controversy has opened the door to discuss families, parenting, and equality for lesbians and gays. They believe that they will be able to raise children in a stable, loving household as most children have with heterosexual marriage. Lambda Defense and Education fund say ” Winning or losing any particular battle over marriage is not all that’s at stake here. What’s at stake is a historical moment to change the position of gay people in society. If we do the work right, all kinds of gains will come from it, apart from the outcome of any particular battle,” he says (Gallagher 36).

Sberman, Suzanne. “Lesbian and Gay Marriage.” Philadelphia :Temple university press, 1992.

Rotello, Gabriel. “Sexual Ecology:AIDS and the destiny of gay men.” New York: Dutton, 1997.

Gallagher, John. “Perfect Enemies.” New York: Crown publisher, 1996.

Internet

: http://www.indiana.edu/~glbtpoll

Action Alert

Andrew’s Business Site (2000, April). Available: http://www.rdmstudios.com/ourmarriage/

Questions and Answers about Our Marriage