The Pros And Cons Of Homophobia

Homosexuality is a controversial topic within many circles. There are those that take the view of being against homosexuality. This dislike or even hatred of gay people is known as homophobia. Homophobia comes in varying degrees, from stereotyping the gay community to thinking that gay people are evil. These varying cases of homophobia result in stereotyping, bans on gay marriage and adoption, and hate crimes and bullying which are all very harmful to the gay community as a whole. Minorities have stereotypes that are widely believed, regardless of the actual validity of the thought. “The majority culture’s attachment to its stereotypes of gay men and women constitutes the single greatest impediment to gay and lesbian civil rights.” (Nava,
There are many reasons that this ban is harmful. Some of the harm is emotional. As said by Judge Sarah Zabel, “[Florida’s ban on gay marriage] serves only to hurt, to discriminate, to deprive same-sex couples and their families of equal dignity, to label and treat them as second-class citizens, and to deem them unworthy of participation in one of the fundamental institutions of our society” (Gay Marriage ProCon.org). The emotional harm of not having gay marriage includes feeling different from other couples. Many people dream of being able to have a “white wedding” with all of their family there and have their love be formally recognized and accepted by everyone. Without same-sex marriage, this is not legally possible. Another issue is that gay couples will find it much harder to adopt children; and if they do but are not legally married, then the child would only be considered one of theirs legally. Within school, children of same-sex couples will know that their family is considered different because they (the parents) are not married. This also makes it more likely for other children to make fun of them because they are able to pick up on how they are considered
This is because without marriage, there are some legal benefits that couples cannot gat. Without a legal marriage, no matter how long the couple has been together, they still do not have the same legal benefits that a heterosexual married couple has. This includes “hospital visitation during an illness, the option of filing a joint tax return to reduce a tax burden, access to family health coverage, US residency and family unification for partners from another country, and bereavement leave and inheritance rights if a partner dies” (Gay Marriage ProCon.org). All of these are taken for granted by married heterosexual couples. Filing a joint tax return, access to family health coverage, and inheritance rights from a dead partner are all important economic reasons that having legal gay marriage is important. Without these, the couples will be losing money because they are treated as individuals instead of getting the breaks that couples get. The issue of not having hospital visitation during an illness, bereavement leave, and inheritance rights would be very traumatizing and painful to the couple. Not having visitation during an illness means that the partner could die in the hospital without the other being there, no matter how long they have been a couple. The lack of inheritance rights means that the partner could leave everything to their other partner, but the family could reject that and contest the will. The living