Gay Marriage Essay

Gay Marriage: The Controversial Issue

Gay marriage has been an ongoing controversial issue. Many other countries have legalized gay marriage for decades and the United States is just beginning to pick up on the trend. While many people believe that gay marriage will stem many problems in both the short run and the long run, it is an issue of discrimination if we were to put a law banning gay marriage. Currently the United States are split up with some states supporting gay marriage and others that do not. There are 19 states that have legalized gay marriage and there are 31 states that have made gay marriage illegal. While those who oppose gay marriage have their reasons, those reasons are unjust and an infringement on the rights of the citizens of the United States. We are the land of the free with the right to the pursuit of happiness. There are many issues concerning the banning of gay marriage. We the people are protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution which states that the people’s religious views are protected. Haters of gay marriage claim that marriage is sanctioned by the church and that it is a sin in regards to their religion and their bible. But that is exactly the point. In the United States we are a diverse community. There are so many different religions in the United States that we have cease to acknowledge just one religion, in fact, we have never just acknowledged just one religion. Using the church and the bible to outcast gay marriage is an act of discrimination and a violation to those people’s individual rights. History has proven that acceptance of minority groups has led to a more unified nation where people from different ethnicity or culture can mingle together in one society. The issue of slavery has been handled and now African americans co-exist with our society just like any other person. The issue of interracial marriage has been handled and now there are happy families with different cultures living a normal life just like anyone else. What gives anyone the right to claim that gay marriage won’t yield the same result? There are also benefits that married couples have that gay married couples do not have when their marriage isn’t recognized. Marriage status affects many things such as tax filing status, joint ownerships in property, insurance benefits, and critical medical decisions. Some people argue that people may take advantage of this situation by abusing the system to gain benefits for themselves. That may be true, however, how can you deny those who legitimately want the benefits because they are truthfully married without a second hidden agenda? If one member of the couple had a serious medical emergency and needed their spouse approval for a surgery what would happen if they were not allowed to make that decision? It’s unfair to deny gay married couples their right to the benefits we have because people don’t approve of them. These people want to live a normal life just as much as we do. In fact it is not their chose that they have to live this way. Studies have evidence that homosexuality is caused by biological reasons. During fetal development there are switches that trigger which impacts sexual development regarding their sexuality and other various sexual characteristics such as masculinity and femininity traits. Individuals in gay couples have either stronger masculine or feminine characteristics due to this. People with medical disorders are also born in this exact way so why do we discriminate against gay couples? They did not choose to be born this way. They just were. If we discriminate against gay couples then we might as well discriminate against everybody with medical disorders as well. If you think about it, our society provides an undesirable living condition for gay couples. People make fun of them; gay bashers beat people up, and many other cruel things. Why would people choose to live that lifestyle if they could help it? These people cannot deny their true nature and we are discriminating on them because of it. One of the most important reasons why gay marriage should be allowed is because marriage is about more than just a title of two people being bounded by law. Marriage is the ultimate expression of love between two people who want to live the rest of their lives with the person they love the most. Marriage is a sacred concept that is the ultimate form of love. We allow a man and a woman to express that symbolic nature of love, therefore, it is unfair to deny gay couples the right to express their love as well. A man and a woman are not the only two entities that can love each other. A man and a man or a woman and a woman can love each other just as much as a man and a woman can. What some gay couples will do is go to a state that has legalized gay marriage and get married there. Then if they go to any other state the state has to recognize their marriage because of the Full Faith and Credit Clause protected by the Constitution. Therefore, there is a massive loop hole in the system, however, one that is protected by our federal constitution. Other loop holes in society are abused and fixed because it is against the law. But in this case, the loop hole is protected so why should we even deal with the hassle it causes? If people can get around the system through this method then we should just legalize gay marriage overall. If people are willing to go through all the trouble just to get their marriage recognize why do we have to cause so much hassle for them when technically the process is protected by the constitution? It feels like the people are trying to put so many restrictions on gay marriage in hopes that we will succumb to the pressure and give up. But if its regarding the peoples individual rights as American citizens we should stand up and fight in what is right. The north fought against slavery because they believe it was the right thing to do. Look how much that effort has yield in the present day. Racism has died down to a minimal and we are all able to coexist and accept one another in one society. Another issue that is controversial is the upbringing of children in gay couples. They argue that children should have a father figure and a mother figure for the best upbringing possible. However, what measures a person’s ability to raise a child? Two men or women could raise a child just as well as a woman and man can. We are placing assumptions that they would not be capable to raise a child well. Some people argue that children would not be able to develop in a normal way growing up. But if we take a look at factors that could contribute to the possible hardships of these children, society itself places hardships on these gay couples. These children of gay couples get picked on because society outcasts people with gay parents. Society enables people to view gay couples different. If society accepted gay couples then these children would be able to endure their childhood growing up without any extra hardships. It is unfair to make claims that children are affected by gay marriage when we cause problems ourselves. How can we really know if gay marriage affects children before we stop bashing on gay marriage? Another issue with gay marriage is the claims that divorce is higher within gay marriage couples. Massachusetts was the first state to legalize gay marriage in 2004. In 2008 it had lowest divorce rate in the country. And between 2003 to 2008 its divorce rate had declined by 21 percent. Divorce happens to everybody including between a man and a woman. People are claiming that gay marriage have high divorce rates when it is not necessarily true. Anybody who targets a specific group will notice their statistical facts more than the general society when in reality its not different than everybody in general. Also the divorce rate should not even be an issue. Why do people divorce in the first place? It is because they are not happy with their partner whether it be they were unfaithful or they were not the ones for each other. Regardless, people divorce because they have not found their true happiness with their partner yet. And there is no difference between a man and a woman divorcing for those reasons versus two men or two women divorcing for those reasons. It is the people’s right to divorce just like any other issue we frown upon or do not approve. American needs to stop discriminating against issues that are not pertinent to the well-being of society and focus more on issues like crime, poverty, and foreign policy issues. Gay marriage should be allowed in all states. A lot of issues would be solved if this was the case. America has fought over and over to protect the minorities against the majority. We are a nation of the majority, but protect the minority. That is why people from around the world want to come live in the United States. We are fighting against what we symbolize as a nation and it is hypocritical to our actions in the past when we fought against slavery or interracial marriages. If we take a look at other countries that have legalized gay marriage for decades there has not been any issues in those countries. People fear that gay marriage will upon the gates for other marriages such as incest marriage, marriage to animals, and so on. But our fellow countries who have done it for longer than us have not encountered such problems. It is not fair to act on assumptions which we do not even know will happen and infringe on the rights of American citizens to pursue their own happiness in gay marriage. Our constitution and bill of rights protect us and enable us to chase our dreams. Fighting against gay marriage is fighting against the law we have fought and protected for centuries. Gay marriage should be legalized on a federal level and the states should not have the right to control whether or not gay marriage is legal or banned. Just like how there was an amendment passed to stop the discrimination against blacks gay marriage should be treated the same way. There is no difference between the two. Stop with the discriminating and lets come together as a whole society.
Sources
Wikipedia (2014): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Faith_and_Credit_Clause
ProCon (2014): http://gaymarriage.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004857
Zach Ford (2014): http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/12/11/1318311/study-finds-biological-causes-for-homosexuality/
Joe Messerli (2014): http://www.balancedpolitics.org/same_sex_marriages.htm
ProCon (2014): http://gaymarriage.procon.org/
John Corvino; Maggie Gallagher(2012): Debating Same-Sex Marriage
Praeger (2003): Marriage and Same-Sex Unions: A Debate
Michael Mello(2004): Legalizing Gay Marriage