Gay Marriage

Marriage has been going on since long before the beginning of American society,

and it always has been a large part of our culture. Traditionally, a marriage has always

been between one man and one woman in this country. Up until the late 20th century, the

man was usually the provider of the house – he supplied income and worked outside the

home, providing money for food and other necessities, while the woman stayed at home,

did house chores and took care of the children. We all know things have changed a great

deal since then. Marriage used to be a much stricter, rigid practice; you could only marry

certain people, and usually women were forced to marry a certain man for economic

purposes, because it was difficult for a woman to get a job and provide for herself in that

time period. And even until the 1967 court case Virginia v. Loving, you couldn’t even

marry someone outside your own racial group(Penal law). Today, we understand that by

our constitution, that such practices were discriminatory and have thus we’ve eliminated

them from our society.

And yet, homosexual couples still don’t have the right to marry. You can marry

someone outside your racial category, you can marry your second cousin, or you can

marry someone who doesn’t even live in your country, nor practices the same religion as

you – but not someone of the same gender. Disallowing gay couples to marry is a direct

violation of separation of church and state and infringes our freedom.

First of all, what is separation of church and state, and why is disallowing gays to

marry a violation of separation of church and state? Separation of church and state is the

concept that the government must remain separate from religious practices and

institutions; this means that the government cannot support or fund any religion through

taxation, nor can our government force anyone to practice any particular

religion(Separation of Church…). This also means that government funded institutions

(public schools, the military) cannot lean towards one religion or the other or enforce a

certain religion on an individual. By our first constitutional Amendment, we are also

allowed to practice any religion we wish.

Our founding fathers believed in separation of church and state because they

wanted to escape the religious prosecution they had faced in Europe, and it rings clearly

throughout our constitution(Separation of Church…).

Marriage however, began in religion, or has been a religious ceremony throughout

history. In Genesis, 2:18, 21-28 states: “The Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to

be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him'...and while he was sleeping, he took one

of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh.” (What does the Bible…)However,

marriage is supported by our government, and in modern America has evolved into our

political system. If you marry, your marriage will be recognized by the state and you can

file income taxes together with your partner. You can also leave your estate to your

spouse, among having other benefits and rights (). This redefines marriage as a

government institution; it is provided by the government and supported by the

government, although inspired by religion and still considered a somewhat religious

practice. The use of the word “marriage” alone contradicts our belief in separation of

church and state.

However, protestors of gay marriage go a step further in contradicting our belief

and right to separation of church and state. They say that the bible states homosexuality is

an abomination – therefore, that gay marriage shouldn’t be allowed – an argument that

does not have much legibility considering, as stated above, that marriage is related to our

political system and thus the union of a homosexual couple has nothing to do with

someone else’s religious beliefs or practices.

Another infamous argument is that allowing gay marriage will take away from us

the “traditional American family” and that young children will not be able to understand

the concept of a homosexual couple raising a child, or that this idea will somehow

traumatize them permanently(). That allowing gay couples to marry

will ruin the structure of the traditional American family, in spite of the fact families have

been changing a great deal since the 60s – or they will say marriage is to procreate and

homosexuals can’t do this and so their marriages should be invalid(Life tips). This is just

another prejudiced belief that (some) heterosexuals have that gays simply won’t be able

to raise children like a “normal” family. Sometimes heterosexuals are under the illusion

they are accepting of homosexuals. They think gays should have rights to protect them

from discrimination, but refuse to believe a gay couple is capable of raising a child like a

heterosexual couple, because they are simply too prejudiced to believe otherwise. Deep

down these people still think homosexuality is a perverted and immoral act. As for the

argument that marriage was made for procreation, well, then why are sterile people

allowed to marry? That’s not a very good argument, either.

Supporters of proposition 8, the bill in California that redefines marriage as being

“between a man and a woman only,” argue that “By saying that a marriage is between

‘any two persons’ rather than between a man and a woman, the Court decision has

opened the door to any kind of ‘marriage.’ This undermines the value of marriage

altogether at a time when we should be restoring marriage, not undermining

it.()”

However though, it would seem to be quite the contrary. If homosexuals have been

fighting long and hard for the right to marry, wouldn’t it make marriage look more

valuable rather then less? And that the idea that our state will marry heterosexual people

but not homosexual people actually undermines marriage because it shows just how

discriminatory the system actually is, and that marriage has nothing to do with love but

with cultural beliefs? This is just another prejudiced way of thinking; that marriage is less

valuable just because a couple is homosexual. There is no way around it – it is simply

prejudiced to believe that heterosexual couples are better then gay couples in every way,

shape and form, whether it be in relationships or in raising a family or in anything else.

That we should not have anything but “tradition” in American society is just a display of

people being protective over old, discriminatory beliefs. After all, a white woman

marrying a black man is not very traditionally American, but is allowed all the same in

spite of this. There’s also the argument that both a man and a woman are needed to raise

a child, even though there are plenty of single-parent families and this remains to be

perfectly legal.

We have to remember that the idea that homosexual is immoral, disgusting, or

anything else is just prejudiced. People use their religion to guard this belief and ideology

or other prejudiced ways of thinking; that heterosexual people is simply “better.” During

the civil rights movement, do you honestly believe white Americans would have voted

for the black cause? That whites would have whole heartedly voted that yes, African

American children should be put in the same schools as whites and that, yes, we should

all be allowed to use the same restaurants, the same bathrooms, sit on the same places on

the bus and everything else. The answer is no – of course the white majority didn’t

support that, and it took the Supreme Court to decide that separate is not equal in the

Brown v. Board of education case, just to have African American children in the same

schools as whites(Separate is not Equal). The same goes for gay marriage – there is

something wrong with this country if the majority is allowed to vote on the rights of a

minority. This is something for the Supreme Court to decide once and for all – does

disallowing gay marriage violate separation of church and state? Once and for all, yes, it

does, and it violates our freedom as Americans to love and be with whoever we wish, and

to practice our beliefs and personal values.

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A/N: I apologize for the double spacing. I'm too lazy to go back and un-double space this. Anyways.

So yeah. Gay marriage is awesome.

This paper was my final, and I got a 97 on it. lol.

Feel free to perpetuate your stupidity by engaging me in a debate of how god totally exists and should run our country and blahblahblah. fuggets.

Also, I would add the works cited, but unfortunately ffpress has a bad relationship with links.

A/N(PART DOS): PLEASE DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME CRITIQUING THIS GARBAGE.

I know it's shit. Actually my grade on it fucking surprised me. I think my teacher might have been a little bit biased.

I AM NOT AN ESSAY WRITER.

Seriously, that is the most annoying thing in the world, to get a well thought out critique on this piece of crap, when I desperately want critiques on the shit I actually care about (my fiction stories). Essays are worthless to me, and in my opinion not a real form of art at all, rather they are simply a series of concise statements arguing an opinion/observation or proclaiming a series of facts. Thus I care incredibly little for them.

Honestly I don't fucking care, what could be better about this essay or not, what could be changed or whatever, if certain facts are wrong. I DON'T GIVE A CRAP. I did it for school. And tempted I am to delete it from here. But some people like it so it stays. But god I am so tempted to hit that fucking delete button.