SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGALIZED?

By : Kiara Rowe

As of May 21,2014 gay

marriage has been

legalized in 19

states .30 other states

have gay marriage bans

through their law or

constitutional

amendments .

FACTS

Massachusetts became

the first state to legalize

gay marriage May

17,2004.Also had the

lowest divorce rate in the

country in 2008.

The congressional

budget office estimated

on Dec 17,2009 that

extending employment

benefits to same sex

domestic partners of

federal employees would

cost the federal

government

PROS

Denying same-sex couples the right to marry stigmatizes gay

and lesbian families as inferior and sends the message that it is

acceptable to discriminate against them. The Massachusetts

Supreme Court wrote in an opinion to the state Senate on Feb.

3, 2004 that offering civil unions was not an acceptable

alternative to gay marriage because "...it is a considered choice

of language that reflects a demonstrable assigning of same-

sex, largely homosexual, couples to second-class status."

Marriage is redefined as society's attitudes evolve, and the majority of

Americans now support gay marriage. Interracial marriage was illegal in

many US states until a 1967 Supreme Court decision. Coverture, where

a woman's legal rights and economic identity were subsumed by her

husband upon marriage, was commonplace in 19th century America.

No-fault divorce has changed the institution of marriage since its

introduction in California on Jan. 1, 1970. With a May 2013 Gallup poll

showing 53% of Americans supporting gay marriage, it is time for the

definition of marriage to evolve once again.

CONS

Gay marriage could potentially lead down a "slippery slope" giving people

in polygamous, incestuous, bestial, and other nontraditional relationships

the right to marry. Glen Lavy, JD, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense

Fund, argued in a May 21, 2008 Los Angeles Times Op-Ed, "The movement

for polygamy and polyamory is poised to use the successes of same-sex

couples as a springboard for further de-institutionalizing marriage." In April

2013, Slate published a plea for legal polygamy by writer Jillian Keenan:

"Just like heterosexual marriage is no better or worse than homosexual

marriage, marriage between two consenting adults is not inherently more or

less 'correct' than marriage among three (or four, or six) consenting adults.

Gay marriage may lead to more children being raised in same-sex households,

which are not an optimum environment because children need both a mother and

father. Girls who are raised apart from their fathers are reportedly at higher risk for

early sexual activity and teenage pregnancy. Children without a mother are

deprived of the emotional security and unique advice that mothers provide. An

Apr. 2001 study published in American Sociological Review suggesed that children

with lesbian or gay parents are more likely to engage in homosexual behavior. In

the 1997 book Growing up in a Lesbian Family: Effects on Child Development,

Fiona Tasker, PhD, and Susan Golombok, PhD, observed that 25% of sampled

young adults raised by lesbian mothers had engaged in a homoerotic relationship,

compared to 0% of sampled young adults raised by heterosexual mothers.

PICTURES