Same Sex Marriages

1. The questions of how should same sex marriage be addressed is brought up everyday no matter when or where. There is always somebody talking about it, or there is some magazine or news paper article about it. You can sit around arguing all different sides of it for days and pretty much never get anywhere in less people realize main topic of same sex marriage. Issues that are brought up arise from things such as being able to share health care, child-custody limits, tax penalties, religion, and ethnical issues. A lot of very big things in life that you need to have to make it in life are in those issues too. Same sex marriages are being fought as I make my report but a lot of the issues that are being brought up are being shot down just as fast.

So that brings up the question of if same sex marriage should be addressed as a state to state thing or if we should have the federal government become involved so everybody has the same option to how they want to live and where they want to live no matter what state they live in. States going back and forth on decisions that they make every single day makes that topic of same sex marriage very frustrating. One of the main points that things that is argued by same sex marriage couples is, that they just want to live a normal life with the same benefits that any other couple might get. These day a lot of gay and lesbian couple are looked at on TV more than anywhere with shows like "Queer Eye For the Straight Guy"(Bravo47) and shows with them on prime time TV. A lot of well known figures are coming out on the streets and on TV everyday" expressing how they feel on their sexual orientation." (Tamara) Sodomy laws, another huge party in same sex marriage pretty much takes away your "Intimate realm of sexual expression." (Tamara) Having help bring to the legal basis " for justifying a wide range of discrimination against lesbians and gay men in areas from housing and employment to parenting."(Tamara) With there only being a little over two dozen cities that have "domestic partnership programs" that help recognize unmarried straight and gay couple who register in the city. Those Cities are include "New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Minneapolis."(Tamara)

2. Same Sex marriages can be argued many different ways with many different reasons to each example. Senator Kerry has a much different look on the opinions on same sex marriage than President Bush. He thinks," that everybody should be able to receive the same benefits even if you are in a same sex marriage". (Domestic Affairs) Being for same sex marriage means that he is for giving them the benefits and respect that any other straight couple might receive. His running mate John Edwards is also standing tall with him and holding similar views on same sex marriages even in one instance asking Vice President Cheney," What his daughter thought of same sex marriage being that she is a lesbian." (Foreign and Domestic Policy)

Groups are now being formed to try to get some momentum on some issues that could legalize same sex marriages in some states. One of the most popular groups is GLAD, which stands for Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders headed by Mary Bonauto. Mary Bonauto is the lawyer for GLAD that is helping Hillary and Julie Goodridge and six other gay and lesbian couples "fighting to get the rights that other heterosexual couples receive." (Kenneth) In 1998 GLAD decided to really take the bull by the horns and "under a unique provision of Vermont's Constitution they sued the state." (Kenneth) Almost a year later in 1999 Vermont's Legislature granted the same sex couples the ability to receive legal benefits that any other couple could receive. After the stunning judgment in 1999 of Vermont they are trying to go further with it and take it to Massachusetts. They are now waiting for the decision of "Goodridge v. Massachusetts Department of Public Health which would make Massachusetts the first state to recognize same sex marriage." (Kenneth)

The Goodridge family, which consists of Hillary, Julie and their young adopted 5-year-old daughter Annie, is one of many families that suffer from same sex discrimination. Hillary and Julie have been a together for sixteen years and see no reason why they should not be able formalize their relationship. "We have a child. We own real estate together. We have wills. We have health-care proxies. But we have no legal relationship to each other, that's why we are trying to change with the marriage case," Julie Replied. (Kenneth)

Today "Eight states including California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont and Wisconsin" (Tamara) honor you no differently if you are gay or straight. But with 42 states still out the discriminating against same sex marriage it is tough for them to wake up and go to work. Because in those jobs it is perfectly acceptable for them to be discriminated upon by anybody who damn well pleases to inflict it upon them. Every year, thousands of people don't get a job, no kind of health care, refused service in restaurants and are not welcomed in" hotels and other public accommodations simply because they are gay or lesbian or are perceived to be so". (Tamara)

Same Sex couple have been studies very closely and studies show that "Gays and lesbians make excellent parents because their children are planned for and truly wanted." All the tests show that "children raised by gay and lesbian parents are as emotionally and socially healthy as children of heterosexual parents." (Tamara & Martin) Most times they find out that the children that are adopted by same sex couple live like any other kids sometime even better. A lot of time the kids that are adopted are "often more tolerant and open-minded than other children." (Tamara & Martin)

3. Arguments arise every day with one of the most important example coming from most recent presidential debates between President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney against Senator John Kerry and running mate John Edwards. In their debates there were some questions about how each of them felt on the subject of same sex marriages and they each answered it differently. George Bush went the way of saying, "that marriage is between two loving adults, and it should preferably be between a man and a woman." (Domestic Affairs) He also said," that that's how he grew up learning in church and from his parents and elders." (Domestic Affairs) So, since he is learning this in church, he is bringing his religion into his decision on the case of gay marriage. Along with President Bush's decision against gay marriage, his running mate Dick Cheney is also