Banning Is Unconstitutional

Throughout the thirty-some years the gay community has become more public in their life style choices and their want for the right to marry. In the 1970s, gay couples had been trying to have acknowledgment for their unions. By the 1980s gay couples fought for "domestic partnership", and by the 1990s the desire to marry arose as strong as ever (NOLO). Same-sex marriage isn't a new topic, but is one that must be dealt with carefully. Gay and lesbian couples should be allowed the marriage they have been fighting for; for both legal and social privileges, in which heterosexual couples have already acquired.

The battle of same sex marriage has been a long and indeed public one. Court cases date back to the 1970s and have spread from Washington to Pennsylvania. In the Zablocki v. Redhail case, the Supreme Court ruled that marriage to be "of fundamental importance to all individuals" and "a basic human right" (NOLO). In the 1974 case of Singer v. Hara, a man fought that denying right to marring another man was violating their rights, but was dismissed (NOLO). Then the 1984 Pennsylvanian case of De Santo v. Barnsley dealt with divorce/separation of a gay couple's estate (NOLO). And finally in 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the "Defense Against Marriage Act" stating that "marriage is to be between one man and one woman" (Graff). As one can see, the history in same-sex marriage is very apparent.

The legal benefits that gay couples would obtain if allowed to marry would be the use of family laws (i.e. divorce, child custody, etc.), right to sue when on issues related to spousal relationships, medical rights, joint state tax filling, and property insurance, (NOLO) the same as heterosexual married couples.

But besides the want for legal rights, they want the undefined social rights too. Gay couples already consider themselves families (with or without children), but they want everybody else to think of them that way too because marriage is not just a legal binding and because marriage is a social and cultural step and label. Being accepted into the married world is one of their biggest goals. Marriage is no longer just for reproduction, but for love, which is often the case in many heterosexual relationships too. Thus, if the gay couples' "unions" are to be considered marriage than no longer are the relationships and the love between gay and lesbian couples dirty and scandalous, but normal.

Same-sex marriage should be legalized throughout the United States because it's unconstitutional not to. Not allowing them to marry is being prejudice against the gay community by allowing rights to some Americans and not others. Doesn't the constitution state that "all