Legalizing Same Sex Marriage

American society encounters many different forms of discrimination on a daily basis. There is age discrimination in which an underage minor will not be able to purchase alcoholic beverages or tobacco products. There is also racial discrimination where a black youth is denied a job in a labor union even though that is illegal. Then also another form is gender discrimination which a woman is paid less than that of a man for the same job. Yet a particularly unfair form is sexual discrimination which a same sex couple is not able to be married like a heterosexual couple. Slowly, this form of discrimination is becoming illegal which has caused much dispute. Even though there is debate about it, same sex marriage should become legalized because it deserves the same rights as heterosexual marriages.

The idea of same sex marriage began when a court case in the early 1970s in Wyoming was tried. (Hull 7) After that, you could say the gay rights movement started, yet it was not until the 1990s that same sex marriage was really becoming a focal point in the movement. (Olson, Cadge, Harrison 341) During that time, gay rights was becoming significantly important because of the outbreak of the HIV/AIDS virus, and many homosexual men were blamed for the outbreak. There was a myth at that time which the HIV virus was only exclusive to homosexual men, but that myth was proven false when a young child had contracted the HIV virus. Then many people started assuming that same sex marriage will eventually lead to other unethical relationships to wanting to accept and legalized such polyamory and bestiality. Yet people have forgotten how same sex marriage will be affecting the children and youth of the America.

Since the beginning, marriage has been o...

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...ry right to be legalized and equal to that of heterosexual marriage.

Works Cited

Meezan, William, and Jonathan Rauch. “Gay marriage, same-sex parenting, and America’s children.” The Future of Children 15.2 (2005): 97-113.

Kurtz, Stanley. “Beyond gay marriage.” The Weekly Standard 8.45 (2003): 26-33.

Cherlin, Andrew J. “The deinstitutionalization of American marriage.” Journal of Marriage and Family 66.4 (2004): 848-861.

Polikoff, Nancy D. “We will get what we ask for: Why legalizing gay and lesbian marriage will not dismantle the legal structure of gender in every marriage.” Va. L. Rev. 79 (1993): 1535.

Olson, Laura R., Wendy Cadge, and James T. Harrison. “Religion and Public Opinion about Same-Sex Marriage*.” Social Science Quarterly 87.2 (2006): 340-360.

Hull, Kathleen. Same-sex marriage: The cultural politics of love and law. Cambridge University Press, 2006.