Same Sex Marriages

Should same-sex marriages be permitted in all of the 50 states, and territories of the U.S.? This controversial question has affected the lives of many people in today's society. This issue is important to the lives of many people, especially the growing number of gays in our community. Gay couples, who may be deeply in love, and wish to acknowledge their affection for one another, may wish to participate in the ceremony of marriage. However, the one and only state that will recognize, and perform such marriages is Hawaii. This controversial issue is important to our society because many believe that gay people should be given the rights that "normal" people are given, and not be discriminated. The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union, devoted to defending the civil liberties of all people in the U.S. granted by the Constitution and Bill of Rights) believes that the special rights given to homosexuals are unfair to others, because it is a violation of one of the U.S. citizen's rights, which states "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property..."1. Recently, in the last couple of years, there have been many articles relating to this matter of gay-marriage. One such article states that the "Presbyterian Church board for New York's lower Hudson Valley votes, 105-35, to let ministers decide whether to unite couples of same sex, but bars them from calling rites marriages2".