Gay Marriage by Jonathan and Sana

A comedian once said, “Why do people want to deny homosexuals the right to marry? I say let them be as miserable as the rest of us. It sounds like we are giving them an excuse. Honey marry me. OOOOoooooo…..cant sorry it’s against the law. Gosh darn.” While comedians and many people joke about this issue, it is a relevant and important part of American Culture.

I am aware that my view is biased, since I have close friends and family members who are gay and have been denied marriage. This means their children, adopted or not, do not have protection under one of their parents’ names which means if the parent who is the legal guardian of the child dies that child has to be put with family or up for adoption instead of going with the other parent. It means finances, such as real estate, bank accounts, and other financial responsibility would be lost to one of the partners if their spouse died since they are not legally in union. But let’s define marriage. Marriage is simply a legal union between two people.

I believe that gay marriage should be defended as a class or race just as jews, blacks, etc or any other race should. My cousin once tackled a kid into a pool for calling his brother a fag. I once cussed a guy out so hard he cried for saying that all gay people should be put in camps. Needless to say I have a bias.

There are several dominant arguments that the anti-gay movement uses in opposing gay marriage. The first one is that if legalized that gay marriage would be taught in schools instead of heterosexual marriages (Ex: prince and the prince instead of prince and the princess this was an ad in the anti prop 8 campaign in CA). From personal experience I have no recollection of ever being taught in school about marriage at all. This also implies that the gay “condition” as they call it is a choice and can be taught. This is entirely false. My Uncle is gay and he grew up in a period where gays were shunned, banished from their families and where it wasn’t allowed or accepted anywhere. Using their own argument if he was told his whole life that gay people are bad doesn’t that mean he should be straight since he was “taught” to be straight? There are more gay people in my family than straight people is this coincidence? Being gay is genetic you can no more control it then the color of your eyes. So this argument that gay marriage will be taught in school is null and void.

Children are frequently used as a weapon to defend the conventional definition of marriage, but this defense mechanism is flawed. Divorce rates are at an all time high right now, according to the U.S. Census, and these marriages are in most cases between a man and a woman. Why should a child be raised in a household where fighting amongst parents are part of a daily routine? From personal experience, growing up wasn’t easy when my parents constantly fought everyday over petty issues. No child should get used to arguments in a household; when a child says “Not a day goes by in my house where my parents don’t fight” then something is wrong. On so many occasions, I’ve always wondered how my parents would act if they were divorced, but I never wanted to be the kid who spent half the year with their mom, and other half with their dad. It isn’t fair to the child, especially when there is a possibility for a child to be raised in a household where the parents, either both male or both female, will love the child unconditionally and produce an affectionate environment, not a hostile one. Every child deserves a loving and non-hostile environment.

Another large argument against gay marriage is that it is condemned in almost every religion. While many people on both sides argue the interpretations of certain passages this entire argument is irrelevant. Isn’t one of the bases of our American Constitution is the importance of separating church and state? If we are ignoring the separation of church and state why don’t we just ignore other foundations of our Constitution? If we incorporate religion into our laws why not ignore the rights of the accused or maybe we just tax everyone without representation, perhaps take the right of women to vote away? Religion as a reason to ban a legal union from happening is Unconstitutional. The constitution guarantees every citizen of the United States the right to the pursuit of happiness. Denying gay marriage is denying this right. Who has the right to define another person’s happiness as worthy or not. Happiness is relative to each person and their desires. Denying a person’s right to be happy is a crime, and should be just as punishable as any other crime. Who someone loves is relevant only to that one person and their partner, nobody else. What right do people outside of the relationship have to judge, criticize, and condone that relationship? They don’t have a right. What is marriage? A union between two people.