Same Sex Marriage

Marriage should be entirely about love, but now in today's society, marriage is a matter of gender, rather than a love shared by two people. Many people, whether they realize it or not have at some point befriended someone who is homosexual. And someone who is homosexual is just as suitable a parent as anyone else. Everyone should be able to receive equal rights, even when it comes to marriage. Civil Unions are not equal rights either. Marriage should also be able to occur without twelve tons of legal controversy to go with the usual family controversy. Religion should never be a factor, nor should discrimination in the debate to allow homosexuals, or anyone for that matter, to marry. It's not even about marriage, but the rights associated with it. There are many reasons one may list as an opposition, but truly, it should be a matter of choice. It is the age old Nature vs. Nurture.

Personally, I have strong emotional bonds to the issue of homosexual marriage. I have gay/lesbian aunts, uncles, parents, friends, even ex relations. I am bisexual myself, and I was absolutely born this way. There was never a choice, and I did not wake one day and decide "Hmm...being hated for who you are sounds like fun. I think I want to be a victim of harassment almost daily, and have to hide a huge part of myself. Even better, I think I would like to lose friends when I tell them, and face the hardship of rejection from my family over who I am. And the best part of this entire ordeal? I'm defiantly going to be treated differently by everyone who knows, be it teachers, friends, family, or employers. Easy decision." No matter how many studies there are saying that homosexuality is an incurable disease or a choice, if it were a choice, no one would willingly just give up a seemingly normal life for one of persecution and difference. Not while there is so much hatred in the world. The only choice one truly has is whether to admit it, and if they chose to, then whom to admit their homosexuality to.

There is absolutely no evidence that children are psychologically or physically harmed in any way by having lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender parents. There is, however, much evidence that shows that they are not (COLAGE). People with HOMOSEXUAL parents have the same incidence of homosexuality as the general population, about 10%. No research has ever shown that HOMOSEXUAL parents have any affect on the sexuality of their children. (Patterson, Charlotte J.) And though many argue that children need both male and female figures, that must mean then that a single parent must be unfit to raise a normal child. I can tell you, from personal experience, that from having a HOMOSEXUAL parent, I am a more open-minded individual for it, and it even helps my self esteem knowing for a fact my mom will love me no matter what, since her mom chose to love her regardless of her sexuality.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" (Thomas Jefferson). That being stated, it seems odd that there would be controversy over two people of the same sex marrying in today's society; but in reality, U.S. citizens are not as liberal as they would like to think of themselves, or as they would like others to believe. We stress free speech, the right for everyone to vote, and other such controversies regardless of race, gender, or physical disability. We embrace new ideas, and we rally in anger whenever someone is treated unfairly. We talk of equal opportunity for everyone, but when the topic of gay marriage is brought up; all talk of equality usually stops, because homosexuals are not viewed as equals when it comes to marriage, and that is completely contradictory to everything we as a nation stand for, what with equal opportunities for all, regardless of any small thing one can conceive.

Some opponents of extending marriage to same-sex couples claim that equality can be achieved with civil unions or other forms of legal recognition that do not go as far as to use the word "marriage" that is used for opposite-sex couples. An opposing argument, used by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, is the following: "the dissimilitude between the terms "civil marriage" and "civil union" is not innocuous; it is a considered choice of language that reflects a demonstrable assigning of same-sex, largely homosexual, couples to second-class status" and also that "The history of our nation has demonstrated that separate is seldom, if ever, equal" (Same-Sex Marriage).

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" (Amendment I). And, now after a brief reminder of our rights as an American of the separation of church and state, we should be able to completely throw out the argument that a same sex marriage is not supported by religion. Even if one was to press the issue, it stands to be stated that while not everyone's religion supports same sex marriage, we as a nation are also a democracy, not a theocracy. It is wrong and un-democratic to impose the values of one or one's religion on anyone else, especially when it comes to marriage and laws. Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, for instance, even wrote that such an arrangement would "strengthen the wall of separation between church and state by placing a sacred institution entirely in the hands of the church while placing a secular institution under state control".(Dershowitz).

Discrimination is a huge problem amongst the homosexual community. One cannot hope for marriage rights until the prejudice stops. Once it's realized that banning homosexual marriage is just showing prejudice, and those banning it are no better off than those segregating those of African descent from those not of African descent, it will be legalized whether or not everyone agrees.

Without actually being a person's legal spouse, you have no rights to decide what happens in the event of an emergency. The immediate family gets all of the rights the partner should; even though the family may have disowned the family member over their sexuality, and that they may not have the person's best interests at heart once given State of Attorney for the person. The partner cannot stay with them in the hospital, and in the tragic event of death, the family has all the say over a funeral, not the partner who was to the diseased, a husband or wife.

The people opposing same-sex marriage will readily list off a handful of reasons of