Legalize Same-Sex Marriages
Same-sex marriage should be legalized in all U.S. states because without universal marriage laws, inequality exists.
A lack of gay marriage is discriminatory against sexual orientation. Anti-same-sex marriage laws discriminate against same-sex couples because matrimony is a state law. State laws are written to apply to all. To deny some people the right to marry excludes and dehumanizes them.
A lack of same-sex marriage laws also limits people from demonstrating their love for another. People consider marriage to be the ultimate expression of love for another person. By refusing same-sex couples, people destroy the ability for couples to express their devotion to their partner.
Without same sex marriage, people are denied certain benefits. Legally the state cannot protect those of homosexual orientation.
Same-sex couples are denied the right to financial and heath benefits. Same sex couples, without a marriage license, cannot receive federal assistance when filing taxes, for instance. Same-sex couples often are refused health insurance benefits that heterosexual spouses are granted.
Without the ability for same-sex couples to marry, same-sex partners face obstacles in joint ownership.
Same-sex couples encounter challenges of owning houses, cars and other property.
A lack of same-sex marriage laws also hinders couples from adopting children. Opponents of same-sex marriage often argue that children raised by parents grow up in unsafe or improper environments.
“At least 10 states are now considering joining Florida, Utah, and Mississippi in effectively banning or restricting gay adoptions, which make up roughly three percent of annual adoptions in Massachusetts,” Maggie Johnson of The Boston Globe said (The Boston Globe, 2006).
Studies show that same sex-couples do not have a negative influence on children’s development, however.
According to CNN:“All of the research to date has reached the same unequivocal conclusion about gay parenting: the children of lesbian and gay parents grow up as successfully as the children of heterosexual parents. In fact, not a single study has found the children of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged because of their parents’ sexual orientation” (CNN, 2007).
Other arguments against same-sex marriage include the Catholic Church teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman.
“The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1601).
However, marriage is not simply a religious right.
Because the state ordains marriages, same-sex couples should be granted that state right.
Other opponents suggest that same-sex marriage does not need to be legal in the entire U.S. They argue that same-sex couples should live in states where same-sex marriage is legal.
By requiring same-sex couples to a few states to get married, the lack of marriage laws limit places where same-sex couples can live. Also, same-sex couples are inconvenienced in actually getting married.
In some cases, same-sex couples must travel across the country to obtain a marriage license. Couples then have to wait days for the license process to be completed.
Same-sex marriage should be legal because the lack of marriage laws unfoundedly discriminates against a group of people.
“In itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality: the ideal should be to be capable of loving a woman or a man; either, a human being, without feeling fear, restraint, or obligation,” feminist writer, Simone de Beauvoir said.
