Gays are a minority group just as African-American’s and other various religious and ethnic groups; the others are allowed to marry, even interracially or with different religious preferences. The U.S. Supreme Court states that prejudice cannot be put into a state Constitution. This alternative lifestyle is seen as a minority group which in The Bill of Rights is supposed to be protected, not politically and publicly discriminated against. “Most religions consider homosexuality a sin (Messerli, 2011). There are more severe actions
Lauren Adams Melissa Helton English 102 2 February 2012 Summary of A. Sullivan’s “For Gay Marriage” & W. Bennett’s “Against Gay Marriage”. Andrew Sullivan and William J. Bennett have very different opinions about legalizing gay marriage. Sullivan suggests it should be legal, but Bennett argues that it would ruin everything marriage stands for in America. In his book Virtually Normal: An Argument about Homosexuality (1995), former New Republic editor Andrew Sullivan argues that not having gay marriage is a violation of equality. He points out that he is not referring to religious traditions but suggests, in a public institution, marriage should be available to any two citizens.
Nancy Polikoff, a professor at the law school of American University states “A movement for gay marriage would surely promote marriage as a social good trotting out monogamous couples as spokesmen in a way that would marginalize non-monogamous gays and would fail to challenge the legitimacy of marriage itself” (Kurtz). Given the prevalence of prostitution and casual relationships within society how can one defend the preservation of
Marriage is not meant to be flexible and recognizing same-sex marriage would mean we are allowing the meaning of marriage to be abolished. Bennett also says a marriage between a man and a women is a union recognized not only in our country, but others as well. He notes that marriage is an agreement for heterosexual couples that many cultures acknowledge and trying to preserve this tradition is not to bully homosexuals, but to keep this meaningful act alive. But, Bennett explains, legalizing gay marriage won’t just change the meaning of marriage. He foresees allowing same-sex marriage could bring troubles we aren’t prepared for.
Another interesting focus is on recent laws that make homosexual partnership and marriage legal in some states. Prior to recent years homosexual marriage was not considered legal and as an issue within the evolving culture of the United States, continues to be a highly charged political topic. One final note about Western culture is that most marriages follow the rules of Exogamy. Generally a person is free to marry whomever they wish with the exception of persons within a nuclear
So basically what the gay community are suggesting is not ‘equal rights’ but ‘extra rights’, which leads me smoothly onto my next point. If the government hit their head and in the state of concussion decide to make same sex marriage legal, it would only be fair to make acceptances for other forms of banned marriages, marriages of which are considered incest, bigamy, and under aged. There’s reason we have restrictions placed upon marriage, those mainly being to keep up traditions and to protect the well being of our society. For instance, I’m pretty sure allowing 13 year old love birds to get married wouldn’t contribute to lowering the divorce rate, or condoning brothers and sisters to be wed and fill our country with their disabled offspring is such a good idea. I have come across no compelling reasons that would suggest homosexual marriages are to the well-being of
Thomas mentions that gay and lesbian marriages should be the choice of the individuals not the government. He promotes gay and lesbian marriages by saying those who vote against gay and lesbian marriage are people of injustice. He states that we cannot solely base our decision on history alone, if so most states would still prohibit the marriage of different races. Thomas states that marriage should promote family and stability and people should not be denied this right. By depriving millions of gay American adults the rights that come from marriage, denies equal protection against the law.
He uses a bisexual who wants to marry two people as a possible example. He does not view upholding marriage to only include a man and a woman as a put down to others. Instead see it as an acknowledgement and celebration of marriage. Bennett feels it is not intolerant to view heterosexual marriage and same sex marriage as different, because “..making distinctions in the law is necessary to relationships that are distinct.” Bennett then moves to social concerns that allowing same sex marriage could cause confusion in children, promote promiscuity, and force the law to allow adoptions that could be detrimental. Bennett closes his article citing the sexual revolution and out of wedlock births as some examples of negative effects on marriage.
Social policies that can be linked to this type of family diversity are laws to do with homosexuality in the UK. For example, in 1967 male homosexuality was legalised in the UK this has made homosexuality more socially accepted; this would allow gay couples to start a recognised family. However, other social policies have made same sex families even more accepted. For example, in 2002 the UK adoption laws were changed to allow gay couples to adopt children and create a family unit. Furthermore, in 2004 the Civil Partnership Act meant that gay individuals could now enter into a civil partnership; resulting in the stability and long term commitment of a family.
GAY COUPLES SHOULD BE ALLOWED ALLOWD TO ADOPT CHILDREN INTRODUCTION Many people have different opinions on weather Gay couples should be allowed to adopt children. According to the web site http://www.debate.org/debate/gay-couples-should-be-allowed-to-adopt they define Gay couple and Adoption in the following manner, Gay couple “two people of the same sex (two women, two men) who are recognized as being in same sort of union by the law”, and adoption is defined as “the act of legally Assuming the role of parent for same one who is not one of your biological children”. Furthermore in this essay I will discuss society’s views on whether Gay couples should be allowed to adopt. Nowadays many Gays couples have expressed their desire of becoming a parent, but this had developed many polemic in society as same believe, they should be allowed to adopt while others argued this would be an immoral act towards the society. In 2008 February o1 the web site http://www.writework.com/essay/should-gay-couples-allowed-adopt argued in favor stating that research have been done and “it has been proven that being a parent is not influenced by sexuality, most influential in being a great parent is providing a loving home, it hasn’t been proven that children living with Gay couples have low self-esteem”.