Gay Marriage. Why it Should be Legalized | Teen Ink

Gay Marriage. Why it Should be Legalized

September 3, 2010
By AllieJo2619 SILVER, Denver, Colorado
AllieJo2619 SILVER, Denver, Colorado
6 articles 0 photos 0 comments

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In a world where you can be anything, be yourself, original and unique. Never sellout and become the one you copied from. be the person everyone wants to copy.


Gay marriage should be legalized because it is uncivilized and unmerited. Our civil rights and the Constitution give us many liberties. One of our civil liberties is the pursuit of happiness, which homosexual people are not allowed to chase. They cannot be married to the person they love and it violates their freedoms. According to professorshouse.com, “In Alaska, Nevada, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Nebraska, Missouri, Michigan, North Dakota, Ohio, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Kansas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and Alabama, not only is gay marriage banned, but so are civil partnerships.”

Others might ask why gay marriage should be legalized, but my question is this: why should other people be able to choose who marries who? If a man and a woman get married, no one seems to care. They are two people who feel affection for one another and those two people want to start a family. If we change the scenario a little bit and a man and a man, or a woman and a woman, try to get married it causes uproar. They are not allowed to be married or raise a family together.

Imagine waking up one day to a world that was completely opposite from the world we went to sleep in, meaning gay people are now straight and all straight people are now gay. Do you think the newly straight people would fight for the newly homosexual people’s rights? America is the land of the free, but we are not free to marry whomever we would like. After everything straight people have put homosexual people through, in this scenario, homosexual people would most likely vote for their rights because they would want their rights to be voted for. We are equals in this world whether we are Black, White, Hispanic, Indian, or any other race for that matter. Why should we not be equals based on sexual orientation?

The 1st amendment of the Constitution states that a person’s religious beliefs or a lack of thereof must be protected. Legislatures also cannot discriminate against marriages of the minority party which, homosexual people fall into that category. There is also an amendment stating there is separation of church and state, so you cannot declare that a marriage is a gift from God.

In a marriage there is one thing that truly matters: love. Yes, other things are important too, but not one couple would make it to even asking someone to marry them if there was not some love. Las Vegas, Nevada is also known for being the place where many weddings occur which are annulled within one week. These marriages are not based off love, but simply a drunken night in Vegas. High divorce rates weaken what a marriage is defined as. Why are we not able to rewrite what a marriage stands for and make it include a homosexual marriage? The definition of love, according to dictionary.com is as follows: “Very strong affection: an intense feeling of tender affection and compassion.” If gay people feel this way then why shouldn’t they be able to be married? If they are happy with each other, said persons should be able to marry.
California, Hawaii, New York, and the District of Columbia all have domestic partnership laws and civil partnerships meaning it is almost a marriage without the matrimony. Civil partnerships also give couples the ability to have joint bank accounts, live in the same house, and pay bills together. Homosexual couples are not entitled to this in most states.
Marriage benefits should be available to all couples, no matter what. In places where gay marriages are banned, the gay couples are not able to have the same benefits as others. When filing for health care or insurance through a job, gay couples are not able to add each other on. Most loved ones, such as a spouse or a child, in a straight marriage, can make life altering decisions in a hospital if need be. Since gay marriage is not legal, said person’s spouse is not recognized as their next of kin and care is delayed.

Who would be affected if homosexual marriage was legalized? No one. Everyone believes there is one person who is out there to love us. Gay people feel the same way. Parenthood is a benefit of marriage and gay couples cannot have children by themselves, without some type of help, so they look to adoption agencies. In some cases gay couples are put on longer waiting lists or denied completely. There are other benefits to being married as well, such as tax breaks. On the website professorshouse.com it reads, “When we hit our mid-thirties, we wanted only true friendships- friendships that were durable.” This is a perfect example of matrimony and what it should be based on. . According to dictionary.com a marriage is, “The legal or religious ceremony that formalizes the decision of two people to live as a married couple, including the accompanying social festivities.” If this is a marriage why are gay people not included in this?

Even though gay marriage should be legalized, some people have different beliefs. In most religions including, Christianity, Islam, and Orthodox Judaism same sex preferences are a sin. People believe in procreation to repopulate the world, but are against gay marriage and homosexuals adopting children because they cannot procreate on their own. If this is a stand point on making or breaking gay marriage then only people who are fertile and want to procreate should be able to get married according to this bias. America has never really given gay marriage a chance, but they believe gay marriage will weaken its institution by leading to high divorce rates. On loveandpride.com I read, “One reason legislatures are denying gay marriage is because they are fearful that opening the door to allowing gay marriages will open the door to polygamy as well. This would also mean reopening cases about polygamy in the past which they are not willing to do.” Others are fearful for children’s futures and they fear being raised by two fathers or by two mothers may compromise children’s mental capacities.

Even though to most people gay marriage should be illegal and should stay in its current state, I believe we need to change the world for future generations. We feared that different religions were going to clash, but now all of the religions coexist. White people had Black and Hispanic slaves, but we overcame the odds and now White men, Black men, and Hispanic men can be equals. If it is possible to overcome such fierce obstacles then we can overcome the boundary obstructing gay marriages and straight marriages alike. Gay marriage should be legalized for these reasons. Evolution will always continue and at any given point in time, something will occur that we will not like in this world, but we can overcome this. Gay marriage is a controversial issue that people have been fighting for years and it has finally come to the surface. We should take charge of it.



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This article has 83 comments.


AshesFeu said...
on Jul. 12 2015 at 3:48 pm
@N0@h201402 just saying, yes Adam and Eve were made to be able to keep the planet alive. As of right now, the planet is overpopulated, so and "Adam and Steve" relationship really wouldn't affect the world's population in any way that harms it. if a Pastor or Priest chooses notto wed a couple, that couple can go to a different person to do so. God loves every one of his children. God created all living things, did he not? Homosexuality is actually in the genetics of a person, it is in their biological make up. "The study detailed an in-depth analysis of blood and saliva samples taken from 409 pairs of openly gay brothers, including non-identical twins, from 384 families. The only common characteristic shared by all 818 men was being gay. Knowing this, the researchers theorized that any single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) consistently found among these men would have something to do with sexual orientation. Interestingly, five uniquely presented SNPs did indeed stand out, expressed in two portions of the human genome." (Stallard, 2014) . That's just one article about a study done, check out the study for yourself later on (Published in Psychological Medicine) . Check your facts before you spew your opinion.

@flowerpower said...
on Jul. 2 2015 at 2:39 am
Ok @fanny you do not understand you. Why did you go and say household and single parents? You know why their single? because they wanted to be single or they sin too. So, answer this correctly. Why can't two human beings with...I don't know souls and feelings..especially heart can peacefully marry each other? I mean why cant marry each other and then man and woman can? Please do not say god says so or even everyone has their opinion because to me it doesn't make any sense to me.

person said...
on Jun. 21 2015 at 9:16 pm
This essay is completelytrue. While I myself am not homosexual, I believe that two people in love should be allowed to pursue a life together

@fanny said...
on Jun. 4 2015 at 10:38 am
youre allowed to that opinion because this is america after all however not everyone shares it so you cannot speak for all. and if we all have the right to both of these then what will happen to single parent households? be happy with religion but dont mix it with the state. if we did that then no minority ever could properly get equal rights

@fanny said...
on Jun. 4 2015 at 10:34 am
you say that the relationship is fruitless ergo heterosexul couples who are unfortunately sterile and heterosexual elderly couples who wish to marry and cannot have children should not be allowed to marry but have some other type for legal binding? and as for the preachers, the institution of marriage and the legality falls under that of the constitution so if marriage is to be done legally a justice of the peace can direct the marriage. as for the breaking of the tenth amendment, by not allowing all the citizens of america to marry the first, and fourteenth amendment are broken. those are the separation of power because if states do not allow the marriage to be processed because of religion it is against the law. also taking away the right of marriage is taking away the equal rights amendment which is another law broken. also if the sole purpose of marriage is reproduction why not do away with marriage? if one is shackled to one person how many children will be created? and is it morally right to prevent what nature has created (because gay people are made from straight people and reproduction is part of nature correct?) from being happy? you seem to lean towards religion and i also believe in a God but we do not live in a theocracy. and if it is about survival then why do we feel love? isnt that a weakness that could cause us to lose our lives? that is God's work and if you are to reduce the love between two men or two women to be less than that of a man and woman then you are questioning love in general. if religion is against love then that will be something entirely different, remember churches and private school do not have to pay specific taxes because they are separate from the government. if they want their voice in it then they would have to acclimate to it.

on May. 12 2015 at 9:55 pm
Robert321 BRONZE, Tampa, Florida
2 articles 0 photos 2 comments

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They deserve to be equal yes, but you say that separation of state and church is a key here, (even though the state was created from the Church *Cough* *Cough*) but in reality it comes down to morale, nature and survival of the fittest. What species is created to never have kids? NONE!!! Thats what gay relationships are. Fruitless acts, I have a gay uncle and have no ill feeling to him or any other gay person and I do agree there should be some legal binding, it should NOT be marriage. Back to survival of the fittest, we didnt make it to the top of the food chain by having gay fruitless relationships. And may I ask, If gay marriage is passed is it right to force a preacher marry them? Some states are offering jail time for that, doesnt that infringe on my rights? Gay Marriage should no be passed but instead a legal agreement in which they are bound but not by an official marriage. My other point is the separation of power, the constitution states that marriage is a reserved power to the state, and by giving the Federal government the power to decide this you are breaking the 10th amendment. Thanks for hearing me out. feel free to respond to me ill try to respond back. @holly312456879 @brendaaa

on Apr. 30 2015 at 10:18 am
@Brendaaa No one cares if your against it. We have our opinions and you have yours. EVERYONE sins EVERYDAY! God still loves us after every time we have sinned.

on Apr. 28 2015 at 12:51 pm
That's simply your opinion and guess what, it's WRONG. Gays deserve love an security just as anyone else does. Where there is love, there Is God. So I have two words to say. Suck. It.

Brendaaa said...
on Apr. 25 2015 at 11:43 pm
Gay marriage should not be allowed . That's a sin , well everyone says " I've sined before what difference does it make " if u sin once why sin again . everyone should have the right to a mom and a dad not a dad and dad mom or mom God put everyone in this world for a woman and man to be together to have kids . I am against gay marriage

Savvior95 said...
on Apr. 25 2015 at 7:20 pm
Hey Noah. Listen idiot. The author is merely talking about the legality marriage within the law, not the church. Marriage within the church is not up to congress to decide.

cycy760 said...
on Apr. 16 2015 at 11:17 am
You can now tag other users by using "@". Gays deserve love to. If they want to be together that doesn't affect your personal life in any way shape or form. All they want is to finally get married like straight couples. They want there rights. I've been doing a research paper on the pros and cons of gay marriage and all the cons say is "its unnatural" "its against the lord" but God is forgiving, if he can forgive a murderer or a rapist, then he can defiantly forgive two people who are in love. Take that into consideration.

on Apr. 15 2015 at 9:43 am
savage_princess, Worcester, Massachusetts
0 articles 0 photos 1 comment
You can now tag other users by using "@".

ttidey26 said...
on Apr. 14 2015 at 7:06 pm
You need a better attitude and stop being so discriminatory to others. This offended me and I can't imagine how the author felt. Obviously they are a teen. Stop judging and get a life! Have a nice day! It make you happier if you didn't be.so rude!

ttidey26 said...
on Apr. 14 2015 at 7:06 pm
You need a better attitude and stop being so discriminatory to others. This offended me and I can't imagine how the author felt. Obviously they are a teen. Stop judging and get a life! Have a nice day! It make you happier if you didn't be.so rude!

ttidey26 said...
on Apr. 14 2015 at 7:06 pm
You need a better attitude and stop being so discriminatory to others. This offended me and I can't imagine how the author felt. Obviously they are a teen. Stop judging and get a life! Have a nice day! It make you happier if you didn't be.so rude!

FOREVER said...
on Apr. 12 2015 at 1:48 am
that is what you believe. its not true. its ur point of view so say "i think" because none of this has real hard evidence of truth. many other religions have just the same amount of evidence to prove that their God exists. plus, u just mentioned later on not to put God with a lower g. then why did you do type it when talking about other religion? u just disrespected other religions and im pretty sure u violated the bibile by disrespected.

said...
on Apr. 10 2015 at 11:36 am
You know what! The only ignorant here it's you ! Because is you say that marriage was created by God why the Pope don't get married? Gay marriage its against your beliefs so your unvaccinated kids are against my civil rights

N0@H201402 said...
on Apr. 6 2015 at 1:45 pm
Well depending on your religion then do as you want. Pray to your god but your god is not my God. Your god may accept gay people but mine does not. Im just warning you guys that my God is not okay with it and you will not be in heaven on judgement day. God is the same today, tomorrow, and forever. He will not accept and gays ever. He will forgive you if you change from being gay and thats why he's "All forgiving". So do what you please

baybear13 said...
on Apr. 1 2015 at 5:06 pm
Why does this need to relate to God? Other religions can get married and support gay rights. Christianity is not the only religion that gets married, so why should they be able to limit who can get married? Also since when is it fair to vote on what people can and can not do in terms of religion? I don't a vote on straight marriages. God is supposedly "All forgiving" should he not then be able to forgive gays and accept them for who they are?

N0@H201402 said...
on Mar. 25 2015 at 4:55 am
@noneofyourbusiness Im live in the U.S so its spelled with a Z. Also to @curly it doesn't affect me severely at the time because i have no children but when i do, I don't want my child growing up and seeing that gay marriage is "normal" because it isn't. I don't want my child growing up learning in Sex Education about two guys having sex or two girls. I have young cousins though and i don't want them learning this stuff either.