Gay Marriage: California's Controversy

The state of California hadn’t been faced with what makes a marriage until the nineteenth century. It was proposed that a man and a woman got married, and that was that, just as peanut butter went to jelly. It was a mindless fact for many. After centuries had past with this common thought, people with an attraction to the same-sex began to speak up about the inequalities. They wanted to be granted the same marriage rights as a man and a woman would, along with the ability to receive a marriage license verifying their commitment in their home state. The state of California, amongst many other states, disagreed and began to see it as unethical. Individual states began to see that homophile marriages caused no harm, while others didn’t budge on their views. What they’ve yet to realize is same-sex marriage is not a matter of the church, and doesn’t affect an individual’s life. It’s one hundred percent secular, and because we’ve made laws that discontinue discrimination when regarding gender and ethnicities, same-sex couples should be allowed the same rights. Gay marriage, when documented in history, had a very difficult time in California.

In the twentieth century in California marked the start of the controversial idea of same-sex marriage. The first thing that was addressed was sodomy, and it became a law punishable up to five to life in prison. Sodomy was considered intercourse, or any sexual acts done with anything non-human. This became a huge issue in the beginning of the century. The ban against fellatio and cunnilingus came into play quickly after. After ten years the punishment was lowered to a maximum of ten years. There wasn’t a regard to sexual orientation at this time. Any person committing sodomy, fellatio, or cunnilingu...

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... one woman. In 2010, during the court case Perry v. Schwarzenegger, Proposition 8 was declared unconstitutional and was revoked. The next year California became the first state which enforced the teaching of the history of gay rights movements in history and social science in the public school curriculum. It also bans educational discrimination when considering gender identity and sexual orientation. Two years after Perry v. Schwarzenegger appealed Proposition 8 the case was appealed. Berkley soon dedicated a day to bisexuals in the same year, making September 23 Bisexual Pride and Bi Visibility Day. This same year also made therapy to change someone from homosexual to heterosexual illegal in California. In present time, it’s being held up in court due to the conflict with the first amendment. California, also presently passed a law protecting transgender students.