“Today some radical-right church leaders wish to bend APA[i] policy [which denies that homosexuality is not a disorder] to their belief that homosexuality is a crime, no different than murder and theft-as per some passages of the Old and New Testament. In their view, gay people SHOULD choose therapy, because they OUGHT to stop being gay. In their view, all therapy should reflect penal law, and all penal law should reflect the Bible. ” The fact is marriage has a spiritual significance, a familial significance, and it is a social statement describing and defining one’s place and relationship in society.
Marriage also has it’s benefits by law that everyone should have when they are married, and no one should be denied this right. However, they are and the other side is fighting vigorously to win, but lets face it they are loosing the struggle. I am going to talk about three issues that effect same-sex marriage first it is their choice of sexual orientation, how does same-sex marriage effect the children, and lastly my whole argument gay and lesbians should be allowed to get married everywhere in the U. S. If the U. S. to remain a nation, where church and state are separated, then we must acknowledge our citizens’ right of choice in how each of them perceive sexual orientation.
Offering people, this choice of sexual orientation does not mean (as some church people insist) that we would be opening the door to legalizing bestiality, rape, exploitation of minors, etc. Homosexuals are not asking to engage in polygamy, incest, or bestiality. They are simply asking to engage in monogamous non-incestuous relationships with people they love.
Just as heterosexual’s do, there is no difference accept in sexual orientation. John Gorvino a respected journalist wrote in his essay Society Should Accept Homosexuality. “All told, the Polygamy Incest, and Bestiality challenge is no longer on rhetorical flourish than on philosophical cogency. There is no logical connection between any of the four phenomena. Why, then, do traditionalists continue to put forth this red herring? Perhaps it’s because they’ve ran out of genuinely plausible arguments against homosexuality and so they’re grasping at straws. ”
I agree with John on this topic, if one is born a homosexual or even chooses to be homosexual then in return they are met with extreme opposition. In addition, how does it that legalizing homosexual marriage will lead to the polygamy, incest, or bestiality. The whole argument is absurd. I feel they should stick their noses out of other people’s business and then this would not be such an issue today. Moreover, how can you deny someone the right to marry because “God says it is wrong” did they actually have a discussion with him yesterday or even today for that matter.
It is their choice again; as it is my choice to be heterosexual, it does not make them any different from me. In addition, it is obvious that homosexuality has been with humanity since the beginning, if not read your historical textbooks, plus homosexuality is not a disorder studies from the APA say so. Finally, yet importantly homosexuality appears to be a part of human personality. Who knows why humans have it, there are a lot of mysteries that cannot be solved, but forget about all the what’s and how’s it is here to stay apparently.
In addition, just as the civil rights movement did in the 1960’s I feel the homosexual movement will overcome and eventually become accepted in our society. Another controversial subject that goes together with same-sex marriage and even exist without their marriage is homosexual’s parental right over their children. Weather someone was in a heterosexual relationship before, had children, divorced and then went into a homosexual relationship afterward, or if they decide to adopt a child. Either way they a parents, but in some states they get their parental rights stripped away from them due to their sexual orientation.
There is no evidence to suggest or support that parents with a gay, lesbian, or bisexual orientation are per se different from or deficient in parenting skills, child-centered concerns, and parent-child attachments, when compared to parents with a heterosexual orientation. It has long been established that a homosexual orientation is not related to psychopathology, and there is no basis on which to assume that a parental homosexual orientation will increase likelihood of or induce a homosexual orientation in the child.
American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Parents” June 1999 Again, the evidence that supports this is overwhelming, supported by many other organizations too. The APA has not found that a parent’s sexual orientation to be an important variable in how kids turn out. Here is a quote from an essay by E. S. Graff, supporting greater parental rights for homosexuals.
“More than twenty studies have been done on about 3,000 children of lesbian and gay men… The results are quite clear: Children of lesbian or gay parents turn out just fine on every conceivable measure of emotional, and social development: attachment, self-esteem, moral judgement, behavior, intelligence, likeability, popularity, gender identity, family warmth, and all sorts of obscure psychological concepts. ” So it comes to obvious conclusion that children with gay parents and children without gay parents turn out equally well and grow up to be in the same overwhelming proportions.
Finally, I get to my last argument, that homosexual’s should be entitled to marry within the U. S. In 1996, the government passed the “Defense of Marriage Act”[ii] it cataloged more than 1049 ways in which married people are considered special status under law. Add the state level protections and intangible and tangible that marriage brings to private life.
That make well over 1,049 in which homosexual’s in sense get ripped off, by not being allowed to be married within the confines of the U. S. It is apparent that the government does not condone same-sex marriages. Yet some states such as Vermont and Hawaii have taken some steps in getting closer to achieve this goal. But all they did is legally sanction homosexual relationships under the term civil unions. It is kind of like a marriage, but without the benefits a marriage has to offer. I cannot see why our government will not allow homosexuals to be married. Eventually though, maybe sometimes within the next five to ten years things will change, and I believe so.
As society is changing and the newer generations views, homosexuality is started to be more accepted. For instance, watch TV. More shows are oriented towards the homosexual audience. A 1999 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll reported that 2/3 of all Americans have come to believe that gay people will win freedom to marry. Need more evidence well heres a passage from Evan Wolfsons essay Homosexuals Should be Allowed to Marry. In June 2000 an Associated Press poll put opposition to our freedom to marry at only 51%; the 2001 Gallup poll puts it at 52%.
A 2001 survey shows college freshmen strongly supported our freedom to marry as well: My favourite poll, however, came in a New York magazine early in 2001. It reported that 58% of non-gay New Yorkers support civil marriage for gay people, and 92% of gay people agree. So as times change and as time does show, something that was taboo twenty years ago usually is not considered taboo twenty years later. As more learn about homosexuality and start to understand that they are still people too. I do see homosexual marriage in the future.
It is something that cant be ignored and it is going to happen. If the government doesnt allow same-sex marriage, it will not stop them from remaining to live together, it wont stop them from raising children. All they are asking for is to get married so they can live together for the rest of their lives with someone they love. They should be allowed to be married there is no strong evidence supporting otherwise, but as social tolerance changes this may just be a possibility. I am not defending why someone decides or is a homosexual. I am just attempting to defend their right to marry.
Marriage became controversial when it involved inter-racial couples, and this is slowly being accepted. Marriage is something special and shouldnt be denied to any human. I feel that what someone does is their business, I am growing more open towards homosexual people, and coming from a heterosexual orientation I was confused about them. Either born with it or not, frankly I do not care. It becomes simply a fact of life that many need to get over with. Like I said I was once leaning towards homophobia because of societies norms, stereotypes, and so on.
Like a saying I heard You fear what you do not know. And this holds true, if you do not agree with something hear the other arguments side first before you cast your judgement. Also accept that many people have different views and stick to them, just as the ones that oppose homosexual marriage so much. We spend too much of our time telling others what acceptable or not. And people fail to realize that we are all different. Ill end this essay on one last quote by Patricia Warren. Authoritarians face some challenges in their aim to impose the Bible on the choices of all other Americans.
Some of us regard the Bible not as the revealed Word of God, but as a collection of sacred and historical writings created by various human writers. It is a document that we ought to respect, but is not a document that I or some other Americans would choose to live by the letter of, or want to go to prison because of. Yet some Americans are working to restore the Ten Commandments as a foundation for the U. S. penal law and therapeutic practice. If they succeed the APA will become a puppet of church politics and reparative therapy will become law, not a matter of personal choice.
