preview

Legalizing Gay Marriage Essays

Decent Essays

Legalizing Gay Marriage

The battle over Gay marriage in the United States reached a fever pitch during the presidential election of 2004. The issue vaulted into prominence when the Democratic mayor of San Francisco flouted state law and performed marriage ceremonies for Gay couples. Conservatives claim that the issue catapulted them into power by motivating fundamentalist Christian voters to turnout in order to defeat anti-gay-marriage amendments in eleven states, including the crucial swing state Ohio. Liberals retort that fundamentalist Christian turnout in 2004 was statistically even to 2000. Regardless of the truth of that statement, what cannot be denied is the attention the issue of Gay …show more content…

Indeed, “In the modern administrative state, civil marriage condenses within a single document a vast array of legal, financial, and medical rights and benefits” (Haslett). Proponents of Gay marriage argue that denying these rights based solely on sexuality is akin to the segregation of blacks in the South. Opponents of Gay marriage also acknowledge the uniqueness and importance of marriage as an institution. It is precisely for this reason that they oppose allowing homosexuals to join in matrimony. Gay marriage would redefine the institution, leading people to no longer believe that “the central purpose of marriage is to bind men and women exclusively to each other and to the children that their sexual behavior is apt to produce. It will communicate instead that marriage was created to gratify grown-ups by reinforcing their committed romantic relationships” (Jacoby). This change in definition will erode the traditional roles held by men and women in a marriage, according to opponents, and lead society down a slippery slope towards a point in time where even polygamy could be condoned as a reinforcement of a committed relationship.

The real issue at hand seems to me to be the notion of civil union versus full fledged marriage. If the main reason that Gay couples wish to wed is so that they can enjoy the legal privileges associated with

Get Access