Marriage is traditionally viewed as the legal union of a man and woman as husband and wife. However, what happens when those two people are two men or two women? This topic of gay marriage has been a major issue in the United States over the past few years. It has raised several political debates as well as other minor arguments throughout the United States and around the world. Until recently, homosexual couples in the United States were allowed to marry. Recently, a series of events change the standing of homosexual marriages in the United States.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Lawrence v. Texas repealed a Texas law that made sodomy a crime in order to affirm the privacy rights of homosexuals. In November 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that the state cannot deny marriage licenses to homosexual couples. Following the Massachusetts decision, more gay marriages occurred publicly across the nation from San Francisco to New York. President George W. Bush responded to these activities by urging Congress to pass a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages.
On May 17, 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to grant legalized same-sex marriages. Opponents of same-sex marriage argue that marriage is a union between a man and a woman and they view anything else as morally wrong. They claim that homosexual marriage is unconstitutional and would destroy the sanctity of marriage. I believe that gays and lesbians should have the right to marry legally; it would allow them to have several legal benefits, such as medical coverage and pension rights.
These same marital rights are given to heterosexual couples, so why would homosexual couples be deprived? I believe that the government should not interfere in personal matters such as marriage. In the United States alone there are over eighty-four major religions that are practiced. Why is it that many of the laws that this country enforce is based on Christian morality? Many court cases have occurred in the United States because of the “traditional” Christian values that are enforced through law.
These religiously derived legal values contradict the concept of separation of church and state. Marriage is one of the few institutions that human beings have to declare our love to one another. Love is a feeling that no constitution can control or limit. Governmental interference in marriage is just the same. How can something as personal as marriage be regulated by the government? One reason that many people say homosexual marriage should not be allowed is because it would promote polyamorous relationships, and multi partner marriages.
In heterosexual marriages where multiple partner marriages are not allowed, who’s to say that homosexual marriages would cause this? This is a statement made on the assumption that all homosexuals’ have multiple partners. For that statement to be considered as an argument, all heterosexual marriages should be put to trial because a man may try to marry two women. In conclusion, the main reason that homosexual marriages are not allowed in the United States is because people believe that is immoral.
If everything in the world that was supposedly immoral were outlawed, there would be no KKK, cigarettes, or alcohol. It is outlawed based on cultural traditions made in America throughout history. However, if America continues standing for equal rights, freedom of speech, and other basic rights, homosexual marriages must be legalized. Legalization of same sex marriages will show that America, being the great country that it is, still upholds its basic amendment rights, and practices the freedom that people die for to get.
