Banning Gay Marriage?

Banning Gay Marriage?

Ask a group of people what they think about homosexuality. Chances are you’ll at least get one person to say what they think is so witty, “God made Adam and Eve! Not Adam and Steve!” Oh, really? Well, if you want to talk about God creating everything then consider this: How did the idea of homosexuality come about? Obviously, God did created “Adam and Steve”. The idea exists today, doesn’t it?

The question of whether gay marriage should be legal or not is a big issue right now. According to an ABC News Poll, 37% of Americans say they are in favor of same-sex marriage, while 55% of Americans oppose same-sex marriage. But, 6 in 10 people say that it’s not worth amending the constitution.

I am against the gay marriage ban because I think that marriage is love, not gender, not age, not race.

The majority of the United States is for the gay marriage ban. The Republican party is for the ban, and most Christians will tell you that homosexuality is wrong. Gay marriage would be bad for: (Christianity Today)

1. Marriage itself: The definition of marriage is “The legal union of a man and woman as husband and wife.” (dictionary.com) “Any other arrangement that doesn’t involve a man and a woman contradicts the basic definition. In short, gay marriage will change marriage more than it will change gays.”

2. Children: Gay marriage would encourage adopting children, or lesbians having children from sperm donations. This would cause the children to grow up in a family without a parent of each sex. If one mother has a sperm donation, the child will probably never know their biological father.

3. Society: “The social effects of these developments are devastating to our children and our society, costing much in disrupted and damaged lives.” (Christian Marriage)


Now, these arguments are potentially valid, but there are so many other things that cancel out the reasons why gay marriage is wrong.

For starters, one reason why people say gay marriage should be illegal is because of the definition of marriage- being between a man and a woman. But, most people aren’t aware that Noah Webster, the author of Webster’s Dictionary was indeed a Christian. Any religion issues should be kept out of the decision whether to ban gay marriage or not, especially since the courts won’t hear reasons pertaining to, “…but the Bible says…” because America’s laws are based on the Constitution, not The Bible.

As for gay marriage being bad for children, how so? Why is it impossible for a child to be raised well by a gay couple? It’s been said that they wouldn’t be raised right unless they had a parent of each sex. If that’s true, then why are single parents allowed to raise children?

Children who are raised by one of their parents have turned out just fine in many cases. It’s no different than if a child were raised by two gay women, rather than one single mother.

Some people have said gay couples shouldn’t be able to get married because they can’t produce children and that eventually the life cycle would end because no children would be produced anymore; as if everybody on Earth would turn gay. But, if people can’t get married because they can’t have kids, then they’d better start banning infertile couples to get married, and elderly couples as well.

Gay marriage is not bad for society. If anything, it’s good for society. People need to learn how to be open-minded about things and learn to accept the way that other people live. There’s nothing wrong with individuality.

When racism was such an issue 50 years ago, don’t you think that there were people saying, “Now watch, years down the road you will look back on this and think, ‘How could we have withheld the rights of African Americans because of their race?’” I think it’ll be the same with homosexuals. Years down the road, people will look back and say, “Wow, how could we have not given them the right to get married, after all, they were in love.”

Or here's an even better example:
Miscegenation spent plenty of time illegal as well. If you were white, you couldn't marry a black person. If you were black, you couldn't marry a white person. Simple as that. You know what? I'll tell you why: Um, hello? It's sick and it's wrong. No way is my country going to support a black person marrying a white person. YUCK! (Okay, those OBVIOUSLY aren't my beliefs at all...!!! Just reacting the same way that too many people do to the thought of gay marriage.)

It’s been said that gays shouldn’t marry because homosexuality isn’t “natural”. Being attracted to the opposite sex is "natural", and it’s traditional. But, what is natural in our world today? Birth control and plastic surgery will go to show just how unnatural our world is.
People think that gay marriage brings down the value of what marriage really is. It’s supposed to be something sacred and valued. If you ask me, heterosexuals are doing a mighty fine job of bringing down the value of marriage themselves, with a divorce rate of 50%. Not to mention people who think of marriage as a joke, take Britney Spears’ 55 hours marriage for example.

As a gay couple, not being able to get married loses you 1,049 benefits that married couples are given. Rights such as tax breaks and health care benefits are withheld from civil unions. (No marriage, no leverage)

So, let’s say you’re gay and your spouse has been in a horrible car accident and is just about to die. The doctors aren’t letting anybody in the hospital room except for close family to say their goodbyes. As their spouse in a civil union, you do NOT have the right to see them because you aren’t recognized as family. Too bad, sorry.
Let’s say your spouse dies at an early age (after being in this car accident) and they haven’t written a will yet. Well, you can bet that you won’t get anything much. They won’t recognize you as their spouse, only as an acquaintance.

In the state of California, the benefits that you lose by not being able to marry as a gay couple include:
Filing joint tax returns, inheriting part of your spouse’s estate, creating life estate trusts, receiving social security, Medicare, and disability benefits for spouses, receiving veterans’ and military benefits for spouses, obtaining insurance benefits through a spouse’s employer, taking family leave to care for your spouse during an illness, receiving wages, worker’s compensation, and retirement plan benefits for a deceased spouse, visiting your spouse in an intensive care unit in a hospital OR during restricted visiting hours, making medical decisions for your spouse if he or she becomes incapacitated and unable to express wishes for treatment, consenting to after death examinations and procedures, making burial or other final arrangements, filing for stepparent or joint adoption, applying for joint foster care rights, receiving equitable division of property if you divorce, receiving child support or spousal support, child custody and visitation rights if you divorce, you can’t live in neighborhoods zoned for “families only”, receiving family rates for many types of insurance, receiving tuition discounts, receiving crime victims’ recovery benefits if your spouse is the victim of a crime, obtaining domestic violence protection orders, visiting rights in jails and other places where visiting rights are restricted to family only. (SameSexRights.com)
These are just a fraction of all the benefits you lose by not being able to marry.

As for Nebraska (the state I live in), this law was added in year 2000:
“CI-29
Marriage; same-sex relationships not valid or recognized.

Only marriage between a man and a woman shall be
valid or recognized in Nebraska. The uniting of two persons of
the same sex in a civil union, domestic partnership, or other
similar same-sex relationship shall not be valid or recognized in
Nebraska.

Source:
Neb. Const. art. I, sec. 29 (2000); Adopted 2000, Initiative Measure No.
416.”


In other places around the world, gay marriage is legal. Countries such as Argentina, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.
As far as politics go with the issue of gay marriage, George W. Bush has stated that he does not support gay marriage, he supports the legal marriage between a man and a woman. While John Kerry is against gay marriage, he does support equal rights for gay couples.

Many people who are against the idea of gay marriage aren’t educated on the topic as much as they should be to be entitled to their opinion. People don’t know about the rights lost, and they haven’t actually considered anything about the issue except for “Ew. That’s gross.”

The Constitution states that “all men are created equal”, yet this country is withholding the rights of many Americans as they deny their desire to marry. So many people think that gay marriage is “sick”, but if you really look at it, it’s what our government is doing that is sick.