Gay Marriage Should Be Legal in Ohio

976 Words2 Pages

As granted by the United States Constitution, everyone is entitled to equal rights. The Supreme Court of the United States recently ruled that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage. Gay rights are forgotten many times and equal rights for same-sex marriage are often ignored. For this reason, federal authorities have left policymaking regarding this topic up to individual state governments. Many people throughout the United States, and across the world, have extremely different views on the subject; some because of religious reasons, others because of family, others because of how they were raised. The policy of gay marriage and equal rights is an extremely touchy subject, and is much deeper than what it may seem.

Ohio is one of the thirty-five states that do not recognize gay marriage to be legal, therefore granting no marriage benefits to such couples (ProCon.org, 2013). “Ohio limits marriage to "one man and one woman" by statute,” (Equality Ohio, n.d.). Males must be at least 18 years of age, while females must be at least 16 years of age to each be of free from gaining consent from their legal guardians (LaWriter, 2004). The Ohio law is very specific on these guidelines of which marriages are legal and which are not.

Plenty of issues are related to the policy of gay marriage and equal rights. Benefits of marriage are but one issue regarding this. In Ohio, legal marriage guarantees benefits that regard taxes, estates, employment, medical, death, family, and many more subjects. All of these benefits consider the spouses as one. Spouses are able to collect disability or social security for each other. They may also be able to obtain insurance from their spouse's employer (Guillen, n.d.). Benefits such as the...

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