Same-Sex Marriage

Society does not accept same sex marriages. There are various reasons for this. Many people feel that same sex marriage is not natural, and goes against religious beliefs. Some people may be homophobic and feel that gays and lesbians do not deserve to be united legally on paper, or under the blessings of God. Homosexuals want to marry for the same reason that heterosexuals have and there should be no reason why they are not allowed to. Marriage is much more than merely a commitment to love one another. Aside from societal and religious conventions, marriage involves legally imposed financial responsibility and legally authorized financial benefits. Marriage provides automatic legal protections for the spouse, including medical visitation. They become a legal beneficiary of a deceased spouse's property, as well as pension and other rights.

When two adults want to be married in the eyes of the law, as well as perhaps promise in the eyes of the Lord and their friends and family, to be responsible for the obligations of marriage as well as to enjoy its benefits, the law should not interfere with that simply because they are of the same gender. By not allowing same sex marriages, we are saying that gays and lesbians do not have the same rights as heterosexual couples.

Currently, only one man and one woman can be joined in matrimony and have their marriages recognized by the state, except for residents of Massachusetts who successfully won a court battle for the right to marry. Same-sex couples were able to obtain marriage licenses in San Francisco, CA, and various towns in New Mexico and New York for short intervals of time during 2004. However, none were able to register their marriages. As of March 2007, almost all states have "Defense of Marriage Acts" or constitutional amendments prohibiting gay marriages. Although state-recognized same-sex marriage is a relatively new phenomenon in Western society, there is a long history of same-sex unions in North America. Various types of same-sex unions have existed, ranging from informal, unsanctioned relationships to highly ritualized unions.

In North America, among the Native societies, it has taken the form of Two-Spirit-type relationships, in which some male members of the tribe, from an early age, heed a calling to take on female gender with all its responsibilities. "They are prized as wives by the other men in the tribe, who enter into formal marriages with these Two-Spirit men."

In the United States during the 19th century, there was an acceptance of two women making a long-term commitment to each other and cohabitating, referred to at the time as a Boston marriage; however, the general public at the time likely assumed that sexual activities were not pat of the relationship.

Reverend Troy Perry performed the first public gay wedding in the United States in 1969, but it was not legally recognized, and in 1970, the Metropolitan Community Church filed the first-ever lawsuit seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriages. The lawsuit was not successful.

As a substitute to the heterosexual term "marriage," James Woods and Paul Young forged the alternative "commitment ceremony" when they had one of their own in New York, NY on November 5, 1994. With such a long history, people are still finding arguments to oppose same-sex marriage.

Many people stick to religion and claim that it offends everything that religion stands for, but whose religion? The majority of Christian denominations, to be sure, and definitely most branches of Islam and Orthodox Judaism, but outside those, most religions are unopposed to gay marriage, and many actually favor it. When the Mormon Church arrogantly claimed to represent all religions in the Baehr vs. Lewin trial in Hawaii, the principal Buddhist sect in that state made it very clear that the Mormon Church didn't represent them, and made it very clear that they support the right of gay couples to marry. But religion isn't the only opposing argument, people are plainly "...just not comfortable with the idea."

The fact that people aren't comfortable with the idea stems primarily from the fact that for many years, society has promoted the idea that a marriage between members of the same sex is ludicrous. Societies have long recognized that allowing civil rights