Same Sex Marriage

The Controversy over Defining Marriage

Opposite sex, or heterosexual marriage, is not a constitutional right. No one has a constitutional right to marry another person. In fact, the United States Constitution never mentions the word "marriage." Yet on February 24, 2004, U.S. President George Bush announced that he supported a federal constitutional amendment that would "defin[e] and protect[] marriage as a union of a man and woman as husband and wife." Bush, therefore, supports adding a definition that would limit the application of the Constitution to some

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nged considerably since the Constitution was written. During that time, the Constitution has been amended as necessary to ensure the protection of America's people. For example, during and after the American Civil War, the U.S. added the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to ensure the protection of African-Americans' civil liberties. The Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote. Moreover, even traditional opposite sex marriage has changed. Women now work outside the home in larger numbers, people marry more across religions, divorce is more prevalent, and families who are unable to have their own children are more likely to adopt. Much more today, the link between married couples is likely to be based on choice and shared values rather than tradition and necessity. Same sex marriage supporters define marriage as "a socially sanctioned, voluntary, committed, monogamous, legally contracted union, of two adult people, which the government and/or society recognizes by conferring certain rights, privileges and responsibilities, such as finances, taxes, and inheritance, child-raising, adoption, visitation, and medical decision-making." They argue that same sex marriages today demonstrate the same moral values
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1757
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)