Gay Rights

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Gay Rights

Throughout history, homosexuality has been looked down upon and legislated against. The law has prohibited any type of behavior outside of the heterosexual relationship. This deviant behavior has included not only homosexuality butalso fornication, adultery, oral, and anal sex. Originally, religious laws prohibited these types of behavior; then civil laws followed suit. The reasoning for these prohibitions is that marriagebetween a man and a woman is the cornerstone of society. "The idea of a man,a woman, and children is what civilization is based on." Therefore, any acts outside of a heterosexual marriage are viewed by fundamentalists as an erosion of society as stated by the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In our group there is a consensusthat homosexuals should have complete equality with everyone else in this country to not only marryand engage in sexual activities, but also to raise children. This is the result of the factthat in the recent past homosexuals, as well as women, have challenged these restrictions in the courts as well as in the media. Their actions have had a tremendous effect not only on our group butalso on a vast amount of people in this country. Just twenty yearsago there would have been a much greater opposition to equality for homosexuals. Butas a result of their involvement, public awareness has been raised. This paper aims to deal with specific constitutional arguments, a number of court cases, the opinions of a few Hunter College students we talkedto, and the role that homosexuals play in the media.

Challenges have beenmade on restrictions of same sex marriages as well as restrictions on adoption by a homosexual couple.Constitutional arguments such as ...

... middle of paper ...

...ore acceptable topic to discuss in society due to the influence of the media and court decisions. As a result, homosexuals are no longer apprehensive to demand their rightful place insociety, along with their civil rights and right to equal protection. Withthe help of public figures and the open- mindedness of the courts and the general public, thequestion of whether homosexuals are entitled to equalrights will be relegated to history.

Bibliography

BOOKS

The Challenge of Democracy, Janda, Berry,Goldman. Fifth edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997

The Law of Sex and Discrimination, J. RalphLindgren and Nadine Taub. Second edition. West Publishing,1998.

Sexual Orientation and Human Rights, RobertWintemute. Oxford Press, 1995.

WORLD WIDE WEB

http://www.aclu.org/news/n061997a.html

http://www.nonline.com/procon/html/gayadoptpro.htm

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