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Meaning of marriage
Meaning of marriage
Define the concept of marriage
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What is marriage? Marriage is defined as the legal union of a man and a woman. According to Psychology Today, marriage is the process by which two people who love each other make their relationship public, official, and permanent. While given the definition of marriage and most of society making same sex marriage nearly impossible; Psychology Today recognizes that “any” two people who love each other can come together and be united. In 1970, in Minnesota, the first gay couple to apply for a marriage license in the U.S. was Jack Baker and Michael McConnell and they were not allowed to marry. However, on May 2013 Minnesota finally legalized same sex marriage and the law would be effective starting August 2013. They had to wait over 40 years to finally be happy about the wedding they wanted and becoming legally married. In 1975, two men from Phoenix, Arizona were granted a marriage license from their county clerk. Nevertheless, marriage is still banned in more than half of the United States of America.
Why is gay marriage prohibited in most of the U.S.A.? In spite of elected officials not legalizing same sex marriage, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) mentions that gay and lesbian couples want the same rights as married couples and more than half or majority of Americans feel that they should have a legal agreement that gives them those rights. (History of State Constitutional Marriage Bans, 2011-2013). Many elected officials are against same sex marriage whereas the president of the United States, Mr. Barack Obama, is the first U.S. president to support same sex marriage. Traditionally, same sex marriage is wrong and morally it is wrong as well. However, we can say that there are a lot of American traditions that are being broken and tha...
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...ter. Gale. City Colleges Of Chicago. 12 Oct. 2013
Dinno, Alexis, and Chelsea Whitney. "Same Sex Marriage And The Perceived Assault On Opposite Sex Marriage." Plos ONE 8.6 (2013): 1-8. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Oct. 2013.
Hallett, Stephanie. "History Of Gay Marriage In The United States (INFOGRAPHIC)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 15 July 2013. Web. 12 Oct. 2013.
"History of State Constitutional Marriage Bans." Human Rights Campaign. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2013.
"KidsHealth." Sexual Orientation. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2013.
Rich Mkhondo. "Gay Families Are the Same as Traditional Families." Opposing Viewpoints: Gay Parenting. Ed. Beth Rosenthal. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. City Colleges Of Chicago. 12 Oct. 2013
"Traditional Marriage?" Faith in America. Faith in America, n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2013.
Wolf, Richard. “Timeline: Same-Sex marriage through the years.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 26 June 2015,
The United States of America, as a whole, has pushed for rights and equality for any and all people. Gay rights and racial equality have received an ample amount of support as well as opposition. Even bringing up the other side’s argument may cause a debate in almost any environment. Today, Americans are easily offended by things that don’t agree with what they believe. America is full of passionate people who always have a cause to fight for or against. Gay marriage has been opposed countless times on local, state, and national levels. “Almost two- thirds of Republicans oppose the Supreme Court’s backing of gay marriage, according to Reuters/Ipsos Poll ” (Reuters). Even though another online survey stated that “more than half of Americans support it,” they still
* Strader, J. Kelly; "Constitutional Challenges to the Criminalization of Same-Sex Sexual Activities: State Interest in HIV-AIDS Issues"; Denver University Law Review; Vol 70, No. 2; 1993, p. 337-357.
"The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline." Infoplease. Highbeam Research, n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2014.
... what can be considered one of the most forward thinking countries in the world. The longer we hold out on allowing homosexual couples to marry, the further we will fall behind in the world. We cannot continuously look down upon other countries degradation of particular minorities while we continue to do the same thing in our own country. Gay marriage it simply gives another minority the opportunity to express their love. Being married involves legal matters, and religion is simply something that we have added to it. The ideals of marriage have been ever-evolving and we as Americans, the pillar of modernization, the ever futuristic mainstay, should be open-minded enough to evolve even more to benefit the homosexual community. If not open-minded enough, look at the laws: America established itself upon the ideals of equality for all. We should follow our own rules.
Being so advanced technologically, it is surprising how America is still so behind on the issue of same-sex marriage. The United States should push aside the religious argument in this debate, and truly separate its church and state as it claims to do so. From its slow beginning to the rapid increase of support in the 70’s, homosexual marriage has been a controversial debate that hopefully will end in the near future.
"Timeline: Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.
Newton, D. E. (2010). Same-sex Marriage : A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Throughout the recent history of America, gay marriage has always been an issue. With the different views and morals everyone has on the subject, it makes it hard for individual states to determine what side they should be on. In 1983 a Harvard Law School student, Evan Wolfson, wrote a thesis stating the rule of marriage equality. Justices concluded that gay couples were entitled to the legal benefits of civil marriage; and most crucially in the Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts, whose favorable ruling, in a suit by lawyer Mary Bonauto and the Boston-based Gay and Lesbian Advocated and Defenders, led to the nation’s first bona fide same-sex marriages…” (“Gay Marriage turns 10 and Credit Should Be Spread around- The Boston Globe). On May 17, 2004 Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriages. In June of 2013, California legalized gay marriages, which helped their large LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered) community. (“History and Timeline of the Freedom…”). When this finally happened, it was seen as a great achievement by Karmala Harris, a California Attorney. “This is a profound day in our country, and its just the right thing: ‘Justice is finally being served’” (“Court Gives OK for California Gay Marriages”).
Kennedy, Dorothy M., and Jane E. Aaron. " What's Wrong with Gay Marriage?." The Bedford Reader. By X. J. Kennedy. 11th ed. Boston: St. Martin’s, 2012. 570-572. Print.
Dr. Hicks (2008), a scholar at the University of Salford, stated profoundly that “instead of asking whether gay parenting is bad for kids, we should ask how contemporary discourses of sexuality maintain the very idea that lesbian and gay families are essentially different and, indeed, deficient.” By viewing same-sex parenting as an equal means of bringing up a child, research could move on to deeper studies that incorporate this family structure into analyses of children, marriages, and families.
Stoddard, T, Fein, B, (Jan. 1990) Gay Marriage, Personal relationships, Marriage, Legislation, Homosexuality, American Bar Association, (Pages 42, 42)
What is marriage? According to Webster’s Dictionary a marriage is “the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law.” It can also be stated for those of the same sex, but for the purpose of this paper it will be examined from a heterosexual standpoint.
Marriage is a “socially recognized and approved union between individuals, who commit to one another with the expectations of a stable and lasting intimate relationship. It begins with a ceremony known as a wedding which formally unites marriage partners. A marital relationship usually involves some kind of contract, either written or specified by tradition, which defines the partners’ rights and obligations to each other, to any children they may have, and to their relatives. In most contemporary industrialized societies, marriage is certified by the government,” (Skolnick, 2005). Marriage is also an important institution because of the impact it has on society. Marriage is the main way that reproduction of human life occurs. In some societies it is tradition for family heirlooms or things of value be passed on through marriage. Marriage also serves as a healthy way to have intimate relationships with an individual. In most places a marriage exists between two people of the opposite sex. However, the legal definition of marriage is currently being challenged by many. According to Skolnick’s article a marriage can be defined by responsibilities that a couple would share, some examples are: living together, having sexual relations, sharing money and financial responsibilities, and having a child together. The issue is that homosexual couples can do these things like heterosexual couples.
Why isn’t gay marriage legal yet? How does gay marriage affect people that aren’t gay? Why does it matter to those people? Why can’t gay people have the same rights as straight people? Gay marriage should be legal worldwide. Gay marriage or same-sex marriage is when a man and man or women and a woman get married. Same-sex marriage impacts society in different types of ways, some people are affected by it because they think it is against the bible, others seem to have no impact or problem with same-sex marriage. However for the gay community it affects them, because in some states they are not allowed to marry the one they are in love with it. Also it impacts them because there are groups of people against same-sex marriage and the gay community is constantly being judged by people opposed to same-sex marriage. Seventeen states have legalized same-sex marriage; Thirty-three states banned same-sex marriage. Same-sex marriage provides a more stable environment for children of gay couples. Legalizing same-sex marriage does not affect or harm heterosexual marriages. Marriage is a union of love, not a union of genders.