Same-Sex Marriage in America

Same-sex marriage in America

The idea of legalizing same-sex marriage is a hotly contested subject in America today. Similar to women’s equal rights and civil rights for African-American’s, equal rights for homosexuals is having a tough time being accepted by American government and by American society. I feel that equal rights for gays and lesbians should be a policy adopted by the American government. These equal rights would include all the same rights given to heterosexual couples such as medical benefits, retirement benefits, military benefits, adoption rights, and legal recognition. I also believe that the government should increase education concerning homosexuality, promote homosexual tolerance and increase AIDS education.

There are many popular arguments going against same-sex marriage. Many people think that by allowing homosexuals to marry the sanctity of marriage will be destroyed. Personally I think that is a silly argument. By allowing same-sex marriage the government would be saying that it believes in the sanctity of marriage so much that they are willing to allow it to be an ever-changing policy. The government has, in the past, allowed marriage policy to change. There was a time when African-American’s were not allowed to legally marry one another; once that hurdle was cleared there was the battle to allow mix-raced marriages. Once again the American marriage policy changed into a more tolerant policy. Compared the struggle that American-American faced for equal rights, the gay and lesbian equal rights movement is in its infancy, but I believe that they will eventually change.

Another argument against same-sex marriage is that allowing same-sex marriage would weaken traditional family values. If by traditional family values you mean deadbeat dads, single mothers and a divorce rate that is skyrocketing. American’s today are weakening traditional family values fine on our own. I feel that by allowing same-sex marriage to exist, America is improving family values and letting go of so called traditional ideas. The family of today is no longer a mommy, a daddy and 2.5 kids. The divorce rate is over 50%, which is hardly a number to use as a defense for keeping marriage between a man and a woman. The divorce rate would actually decrease by allowing more people to get married.

Some have argued that marriage is for procreation and homosexuals cannot procreate which would inhibit the continuation of the species. What a ridiculous argument. First of all, infertile couples are allowed to marry and they can’t procreate, also couples who wish to marry aren’t asked if they plan on having children or not. And by the way, with our planet as overpopulated as it is I highly doubt that allowing homosexuals to marry would bring us to extinction. Infertile couples would be encouraged to adopt a child in need of parents, while gay couples are banned from adopting a child together. It is very sad to think about a homosexual person adopting a child and raising that child with their partner, one day the parent dies and the partner has no legal rights to a child that he or she could have helped to raise from birth. Sexual orientation should not matter.

I feel that the transition to equality in marriage could be implemented fairly easily. Simply make no distinction between marriage between a man and a women and marriage between same-sex couples. I am sure that it would not go this smoothly what with the fight from religious