Gay Marriages: The Arguments
There is so much controversy surrounding gay marriages basing on the fact that it involves both social and legal arguments some which support it while others oppose it. Legal arguments that support gay marriages receive more attention because they are matters of basic equal and civil rights.
Social arguments on the other hand are mostly against gay marriages because they tend to protect the well being of the society through upholding of morality. All in all it is not demonstrable that gay marriages are harmful to the well being of the society. And even incase they were harmful, their dignity and equality should be respected. If two people are in love with one another, they should be able to enjoy the same privileges, rights and responsibilities like any other couple regardless of their genders (Lee, 2010).As Lee (2010) explains gay couples are prohibited from a number of rights and benefits that are awarded to the legally recognized couples: for instance, access to medical disability and life insurance of a spouse (Lee, 2010).
These are instances of discrimination that obviously negatively affect the gays in one way or the other. Unlike the unmarried heterosexual partners who have the alternative of being legally married and therefore being able to enjoy rights awarded to legally recognized marriages, there is no such option for same sex couples. One claim that normally comes up whenever gay issues are raised is that gay relationships are not natural because their union cannot produce children.However there is much to marriage than the mere reproduction of kids (Dowlatshahi, 2009). There is the need for commitment from each party.
We have so many heterosexual couples who cannot produce kids by they still love one another and live together as man and wife. Moreover, there is always an option of adoption of kids if a couple feels like. Gay couples can have and raise children even if the children are not from their union. If procreation is the basic definition of a legal marriage then surely the aged, impotent and sterile couples would be unacceptable too. But if these groups of people cannot be denied the right to marry and enjoy their lives because of the link of procreation, then gay couples should not be denied their rights because of this same reason.
One thing the society should accept is that there are gay individuals already living among us whether we like it or not. Unfortunately some of them tend to shy away from making their sexual orientation known because of the fear of discrimination. Dowlatshahi (2009) argues that marriage is not a competition but a corporation. The society is to blame for such actions. The divorce rate is on the increase because some of the gay individuals are forced into heterosexual marriages by the society. If each individual was allowed to marry whoever he loves regardless of their gender, then perhaps we might have stronger marriages based on genuine love.
Opponents of gay marriages argue that legalization of gay marriages will degrade the marriage institution. It should be understood that marriages are the most important institutions in the society. To prevent any person from this important right of passage because of his/her gender is an astonishing deprivation (Glenn, 2010). Besides heterosexual marriages are faced with all sorts of problems; adultery, infidelity, rape and so on. Should all of these be blamed on gays? Absolutely no! In fact, marriages will become stronger if gay couples are legalized because people won’t just marry for the sake of it and end up engaging in infidelity.
They will instead marry because they genuinely want to stay together as a couple.The best way for the society to strengthen marriage as an institution is to fight for change. It should accept gay couples because this is what they want and instead of hiding behind doors, they should be allowed to become public about their sexual orientation and live without fear of discrimination.
