The NAACP has named gay marriage “one of the key struggles of our time”. According to the website “ProCon.org” as of January 6th 2014, 17 states have taken the plunge and legalized same-sex marriage. Marriage is “one of the basic civil rights of man”. Yet, we are still waiting on 66% of our nation to do the right thing and legalize gay marriage. The ban on gay marriage has deprived gay, lesbian, and bisexuals of many benefits that come with being married. Also, it has been proved that banning gay marriage created an increase in psychological disorders, as well it shows legalizing same-sex marriage can bring economic benefits to the states and lastly legalizing gay marriage makes it easier for same-sex couples to adopt. Something needs to be done, and that is legalizing same-sex marriage.
There should no longer be a ban on gay marriage. If gay marriage was legal gay, lesbian, and bisexuals would not be deprived of the many benefits that come along with being married. When you get married you automatically gain a multitude of benefits. According to the article “Gay Rights” from Facts on File, there are many benefits gays do not get because they cannot marry. Gay couples do not get to visit each other in the hospital, or jail. They cannot refuse to testify against their significant other in court. They also do not get social security and tax benefits that come along with being a married couple. If anyone in the relationship works, the other person will not receive health insurance through the others work. This is very unfair; health insurance is an extremely important thing to have. As well as this, gay couples also do not get the right to sue over the wrongful death of their partner (Gay). If all that wasn’t enough, same-sex cou...
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Graff, E. J. "What's Next?." Newsweek. 27 Sep. 2013: 1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 06 Feb. 2014.
ProCon.org. "Gay Marriage ProCon.org" ProCon.org. 5 Feb. 2014. Web. 6 Feb. 2014. .
Bilger, Audrey. "The State(s) of Same-Sex Marriage." Ms.. Fall 2010: 12-13. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 06 Feb. 2014.
Klein, Ezra. “Sorry, Justice Scalia: There’s No Evidence That Gay Parents Aren’t Great Parents.” WashingtonPost.com. Web. 27 Mar. 2013.
Pawelski, James. M.S. “The Effects of Marriage, Civil Union and Domestic Partnership Laws on the Health and Well-being of Children” Web. Pediatrics. Jul. 2006.
Gartrell, Nanette. MD. Bos, Henry. PhD. “US National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study: Psychological Adjustment of 17-Year-Old Adolescents” Pediatrics. Web. 07 Jul. 2010.
Wolf, Richard. “Timeline: Same-Sex marriage through the years.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 26 June 2015,
Tori, DeAngelis. "New data on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Mental Health." www.apa.org/monitor/feb02/newdata.aspx . N.p., 12 february 2002. Web. 9 Apr 2014.
Bos, H. M., Van Balen, F., & Van den Boom, D. C. (2007). Child adjustment and parenting in planned lesbian-parent families. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 77, 38-48. doi:
Meezan, William and Jonathan Rauch. "Gay Marriage, Same-Sex Parenting,and America's Children." Marriage and Child Wellbeing 15 (2005): 2.
President George Bush strongly opposed gay marriage along with most of America 's past and present legislators and politicians. For instance, Minnesota state senator Paul Koering openly came out the closet and admitted being gay when in the past he had voted against the attempted marriage amendments for gays to be legal to unify. Today, more than 35 states have legalized gay marriage. Homosexuals are adopting children because they cannot have one. They take children who were once starving and living in the streets, or abandoned, and take good care of them. I 'd rather see a child with a loving gay couple than to see it sleeping in the street with nowhere to go. Government officials in both state and national offices oppose these laws because if they allow same-sex marriage to occur, they will lose large amounts of votes and supporters will be appalled. The future looks grim for gay marriage with the conservative republicans holding office. Furthermore, legalizing same sex marriage can cause a chain reaction of hostility and violence. Many anti-gay organizations, some resembling the infamous Ku Klux Klan of the 1920’s, will form and be on the doorstep of same-sex couples. This may also perhaps create an international clash and cause other countries to view America more immoral than we already appear which makes gay marriage legalization even more difficult to
Perrin, Ellen C., and Benjamin S. Siegel. "Promoting the Well-Being of Children Whose Parents Are Gay or Lesbian." Pediatrics 131.4 (2013): 1374-383. PDF file.
As an American citizen, a person should be entitled to marry whoever they choose, regardless of gender or sexual preference. Gay marriage is something that some people consider to be taboo while other people are very supportive of it; I am one of the latter. The ability to marry someone is a basic human right and it should not be taken away from someone because they love a person of the same gender. One of the main reasons that gay marriage is illegal in the United States is because of what the Bible says about it, regardless of the fact that the first Amendment of the US Constitution says that there is to be a separation between church and state. Approximately three point eight percent of the United States population is made up of people
The empirical data found proposes lesbian parent couples were more equ... ... middle of paper ... ... df This study examined associations among family type (same-sex vs. opposite-sex parents); family and relationship variables; and the psychosocial adjustment, school outcomes, and romantic attractions and behaviors of adolescents. Participants included 44 12- to 18-year-old adolescents parented by same-sex couples and 44 same-aged adolescents parented by opposite-sex couples, matched on demographic characteristics and drawn from a national sample. Normative analyses indicated that, on measures of psychosocial adjustment and school outcomes, adolescents were functioning well, and their adjustment was not generally associated with family type.
Mercer, L. R. & Berger, R. M. (1989). Social service needs of lesbian and gay adolescents. Adolescent Sexuality: New Challenges for Social Workers. Haworth Press.
America was built on the thought of freedom, that anyone could come here and be whomever he or she wanted and do whatever they wanted. However, this standard doesn’t seem to stand still since gay couples are not allowed to fully express this. They are refused the right to marry the one they love, they do not get to participate in one of the most sacred traditions we have. This should change and allow them to marry whomever they please. There are already 33 states that have legalized this right, and there are many others who are recognize it. However, gay marriage should be legal through out all the states because of how marriage can be defined, it doesn’t affect anyone else except who’s in the relationship, and they deserve the legal rights.
As a United States citizen who was born in the new millennium, I was brought up with the idea that, as stated in the Declaration of Independence, “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This statement was one of the main sources of fuel for the Civil Rights Movements in the mid 1950’s/60’s in the United States. Minority groups have often been mistreated in the United States culminating in movements much like that of the women’s suffrage movement, civil rights movements and now a movement toward equality for the LGBTQIA. In the last few decades a new minority group, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex and allies, and their struggle to attain their right to the pursuit of happiness. This small makes up roughly 4 percent of the US population. Though many say that gay marriage will weaken the moral foundation of our country, it should be legalized, not only because banning it is unconstitutional, but also because strips people of their human rights
There is very little research that has been done in the past on the mental health of LGBT individuals. In 1997 the federal center for Mental Health Services called for information to be compiled on the topic (Lucksted 3). Most of the information came from small publications, grass root information and self-reporting and even this information was incomplete because of the lesser reporting on people of the transgender and bisexual communities. This older report shows what the state of affairs was in ...
Popenoe, David. A. "Cohabitation, Marriage, And Child Wellbeing: A Cross-National Perspective. " Society 46.5 (2009): 429-436.
On June 26, 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled that the US Constitution guarantees the right for same-sex couples to marry. Should gay marriages be legal? Clearly we as a nation are undecided on this issue. Thirty-six states have passed legislation banning gay marriages, yet a few states have passed laws that allows homosexual couples the right to participate in civil unions. Several other states are also debating whether or not to allow these couples to marry. Unfortunately, the dispute has left the United States' homosexual community in an awkward position. There are some people who think that gay people have no rights and should never be allowed to marry, and others believe that gay people should enjoy the same rights and privileges as heterosexuals. I think that the United States should allow same-sex couples to marry just like heterosexual couples.
Gay and lesbian unions have been for a long time a subject that no one liked to discuss. For the last few decades, gays and lesbians have come out and expressed their sexuality preferences. Many believe that same sex marriage should not be legalized because it's against the moral. It's against the definition of marriage, which is considered as the union of a man and a woman as a husband and wife. Same sex marriage should be legalized because the way society views the union of lesbian and gays can a change. Another reason why same sex marriage should be legalized is that children that are issued from a gay or lesbian couple will be loved and raised in a family that is legally recognized under the law. Lesbians and gays also deserve to have the same rights as heterosexuals.