While taking a course in college I learned about various issues that America is facing today, and has faced before, some being the viewing of the film Milk and discussions on brave acts Harvey Milk and others demonstrated to fight for what they believed in involving same sex marriage. I believe that adults have the right to be with whomever they would like, and that there is an issue with love vs. law today in society. Many people have been through Joseph Campbell’s theory The Hero’s Journey to have same sex marriage legalized and acknowledged. “It's fair to say that Milk spoke out as an advocate for gay rights, prompting more and more gays and lesbians to come out of their closets and thus increasing their visibility enormously. Whereas before, the gays were attacked helplessly by crazy people”(McCarthy). If it were not for Milk and him being an openly gay elected official fighting for the LGBT community, some of the gay rights we have today may not have been acknowledged. In this paper, I will examine the brave acts of Harvey Milk to Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey concept. …show more content…
Since then many people have opposed this right. People disagree with the legalization of gay marriage making claims that it is physically and and biologically unnatural. There have been so many reasons people believe same sex marriage should not have been legalized. On the other hand, there have been plenty of reasons it should be. I believe that denying gay and lesbian people their rights will take away civil rights. Gay, lesbian, straight, or whomever are entitled to love whoever makes them happy, we are all human and deserve the same
The Times of Harvey Milk suggests that the experiences of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people in the 1980s and 1990s reflect on the dangers of visibility. While the election of the first openly gay politician, Harvey Milk, was a first, representing change in it’s own, the murder of Harvey Milk spoke even louder, specifically the short amount of time his murderer, Dan White, was sentenced. The film suggests that while being openly gay at the time, while accepted by some, remained and still remains a danger. Public leaders within the movement experienced violence, discrimination, and in Harvey Milk’s case murder. Even so, it is shown that with every injustice the community grows bigger and stronger, never losing the support of its community and allies. This is shown in the film by the silent, candlelight parade of 45,000 people on the night of the murder, followed by an angry, violent, riot following the sentencing of his murderer. Though Milk was murdered, a decade before he would have never been elected, he wouldn’t have had support, this was a pivotal point in the growth of the movement.
He also discusses how love and the desire for commitment play a big part in the argument for and against gay marriage. Stoddard begins his argument successfully with pathos, or emotional appeal, to attain the reader’s empathy for those who have been deprived of a loved one. The story tells of a woman named Karen Thompson, who was basically married, but not legally, to her female partner; when Thompson’s partner was in a critical car accident, her partner’s parents completely cut Thompson off from all contact with their daughter. Had the two women been married, they would not have had to deal with such heart-throbbing pain. This example is effective in presenting how marriage “can be the key to survival, emotional and financial” (Stoddard, 1988, p. 551).
In the short story "Two Kinds," by Amy Tan, the mother in the story tries to do what is best for her daughter to become a world-renowned prodigy. This issue could also be connected to the short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," by Ursula K. LeGuin, where the people of Omelas are happy in their lives but also see that there is this person sleeping in a closet and being treated like an animal, but still carry on with their lives. There are people who speak up against these hateful laws towards homosexual people, but there is also the group of people that keep silent and do not say anything with fear that they might be labeled with words such as "gay" or "faggot." The two stories have a deep connection with each other in the sense that they affect the different reactions that citizens have to laws that limit the lives of others. Confo...
The media considers the1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City the spark of the modern gay rights movement. This occurred after the police raided the Stonewall bar, a popular gay bar in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. Allyn argues that the new energy and militancy generated by the riot played a crucial role in creating the gay liberation movement. Arguably, the Stonewall Riots have come to resemble the pivotal moment in gay rights history largely because it provided ways for the gay community to resist the social norms. In fact, the riots increased public awareness of gay rights activism (Allyn 157). Gay life after the Stonewall riots, however, was just as varied and complex as it was before. In the following era, ho...
Although the conclusion of the Civil War during the mid-1860s demolished the official practice of slavery, the oppression and exploitation of African Americans has continued. Although the rights and opportunities of African Americans were greatly improved during Reconstruction, cases such a 1896’s Plessy v. Ferguson, which served as the legal basis for segregation, continue to diminish the recognized humanity of African Americans as equal people. Furthermore, the practice of the sharecropping system impoverished unemployed African Americans, recreating slavery. As economic and social conditions worsened, the civil rights movement began to emerge as the oppressed responded to their conditions, searching for equality and protected citizenship.With such goals in mind, associations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which came to the legal defense of African Americans and aided the march for civil rights reforms, emerged. By working against the laws restricting African Americans, the NAACP saw progress with the winning of cases like Brown v. Board of Education, which allowed the integration of public schools after its passing in 1954 and 1955. In the years following the reform instituted by the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, the fervor of the civil rights movement increased; mass nonviolent protests against the unfair treatment of blacks became more frequent. New leaders, such as Martin Luther King, manifested themselves. The civil rights activists thus found themselves searching for the “noble dream” unconsciously conceived by the democratic ideals of the Founding Fathers to be instilled.
For some background, this case escalated to the Supreme Court since several groups of same-sex couples from different states, sued state agencies when their marriage was refused to be recognized. As it escalated through appeals, the plaintiffs argued that the states were violating the Equal Protection clause and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Equal Protection, according to the Constitution refers to the fact that, “any State [shall not] deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…” (23). The opposition of this case was that, 1) The Constitution does not address same-sex marriage as a policy, and 2) The sovereignty of states regarding the decision. Ultimately, and according to the Oyez project, the Court held that “[the Amendment] guarantees the right to marry as one of the fundamental liberties it protects, and that analysis applies to same-sex couples,” and therefore, same-sex marriage is a fundamental liberty.
Throughout history people who manifested an attraction for others of the same sex usually have gone through a lot of maltreatments, discrimination, and have often been regarded as “sexual deviants.” Relationships between people of the same sex have been present since the beginning of history. Their lives have not always been easy, because they have been persecuted and sometimes even forced to go through a psychiatric evaluation. At the same time, in order to gain their rights and dignity, they had to take their fight to the legal system because as George Chauncey, a professor of history at Yale University mentioned, “although most people recognize that gay life was difficult before growth of the gay movement in the 1970s, they often have only the vaguest sense of why: that gay people were scorned and ridiculed, made to feel ashamed, afraid, and alone” (290). However, discrimination and maltreatment were not the only reasons homosexuals had to take their struggle to the courts. An American professor of history at Yale University, who has testified in a number of gay rights cases, has exposed the ins and outs of the legal system in the second half of the twentieth century. During this time, a great number of states had created laws, which authorized the indefinite detention of homosexuals in mental institutions, and conditioned their release upon proving that they were cured from homosexuality (Chauncey 294). This past history, together with studies conducted by some prestigious institutions have lead society to understand that the right to homosexual marriage is economically, ethically, and morally correct, because it would benefit the economy and society by increasing the federal budget and creating a legal status for homosexual c...
The history of the gay rights movement goes as far back as the late 19th century. More accurately, the quest by gays to search out others like themselves and foster a feeling of identity has been around since then. It is an innovative movement that seeks to change existing norms and gain acceptance within our culture. By 1915, one gay person said that the gay world was a "community, distinctly organized" (Milestones 1991), but kept mostly out of view because of social hostility. According to the Milestones article, after World War II, around 1940, many cities saw their first gay bars open as many homosexuals began to start a networking system. However, their newfound visibility only backfired on them, as in the 1950's president Eisenhower banned gays from holding federal jobs and many state institutions did the same. The lead taken by the federal government encouraged local police forces to harass gay citizens. "Vice officers regularly raided gay bars, sometimes arresting dozens of men and women on a single night" (Milestones). In spite of the adversity, out of the 1950s also came the first organized groups of gays, including leaders. The movement was small at first, but grew exponentially in short periods of time. Spurred on by the civil rights movement in the 1960s, the "homophile" (Milestones) movement took on more visibility, picketing government agencies and discriminatory policies. By 1969, around 50 gay organizations existed in the United States. The most crucial moment in blowing the gay rights movement wide open was on the evening of July 27, 1969, when a group of police raided a gay bar in New York City. This act prompted three days of rioting in the area called the Stonewall Rio...
Note: This paper has a very long Annotated Bibliography. In recent years, same-sex relationships have become more encompassing in US society. State legislation is changing such as accepting gay marriages, enforcing anti-discrimination laws, and legal gay adoptions; the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community is becoming public. Gay-headed families, like heterosexuals, are diverse and varying in different forms.
Legalizing gay marriage has been a controversial topic in the past few years. In my opinion, gay people should be allowed to get married because it is a civil right. It shouldn 't matter what gender they prefer because they 're still regular people. Making gay marriage illegal, is the same as taking away someone 's freedom and civil rights. That is unethical and completely awful. There 's no harm being done by letting two people who are in love with each other get married. However, many religious fundamentalists are against this and believe gay marriage is wrong and needs to be stopped. Homosexual couples should have the right to get married because it 's a civil right and their sexual preference doesn 't make them any less human.
Gay Marriage has been debated in many countries for a long time. It interferes with citizens civil rights so is therefore a major issue. Many gay couples today have come out and expressed their sexuality. Although many people are against legalization of gay marriage, I believe it should be legalized for the reason that it encourages strong family values, leads to the increasing number of child adoption, and is a citizen civil rights.
A large majority of people in the United States will say that they are in favor of equal rights for homosexuals. They will all agree that homosexuals should have the same rights in housing, jobs, public accommodations, and should have equal access to government benefits, equal protection of the law, and other rights granted to US citizens. However, when the topic of marriage arises, all the talk of equality ceases. Over fifty percent of all people in the United States oppose homosexual marriage, despite the fact that most are otherwise supportive of homosexual rights. This means that many of the same people who are even passionately in favor of homosexual rights oppose homosexuals on this one issue. This is because there is a lot of misunderstanding about what homosexuality really is, as well as the erroneous assumption that homosexual people enjoy the same civil rights protections as everyone else. For the reasons of ending social injustice, the economic and social benefits of allowing homosexuals to marry, and the constitution, homosexual marriages should be a legalized institution.
Legalization of gay marriage has been a major controversial topic for a long time. Although, many people do not know what it means to be homosexual, most people do not know the actual definition of homosexuality and they do not know how difficult it is to be gay in this society. There are many reasons why people are against gay marriage and homosexuals all together. Most of the reasons are based on religious bias another big reason is being afraid of the unknown. Some smaller reasons are that being heterosexual is such a social norm now a day’s people are not used to the change. Also parents often time tell kids that homosexuality is not a good thing because of there own views. Gay marriage should be legalized because most of the people who have a problem with it do not form complete thoughts and do not have a real reason that makes it not okay. Finally, what it takes to get gay marriage legal in Illinois is more complicated then one might think.
An issue that has, in recent years, begun to increase in arguments, is the acceptability of homosexuality in society. Until recently, homosexuality was considered strictly taboo. If an individual was homosexual, it was considered a secret to be kept from all family, friends, and society. However, it seems that society has begun to accept this lifestyle by allowing same sex couples. The idea of coming out of the closet has moved to the head of homosexual individuals when it used to be the exception.
The way society views same sex marriage can change. Throughout history, many beliefs have changed. In the past, black people were not considered as citizens in the constitution. It is not until the thirteenth amendment in 1865 that slavery was banned. Women were not considered equal to men and were not given the right to vote until 1920 when congress passed the fourteenth amendment. It takes time but opinions and beliefs can change and the past has shown us that is indeed possible! Same sex marriage are nothing more than the union of two humans being that care, love, and want to make commitments to each other. That commitment can not be recognized unless same sex marriage is legalized.