Gays and Marriage

The issue of the rights of gays to marry is a controversial one, but one which is not going to go away. Gays are entitled to the same rights and protections under the Constitution of the United States as anyone else. The fact that they are born with a different sexual persuasion should not exclude them from these rights and protections. Those who oppose gay marriage say that allowing gays to marry would undermine the institution of marriage as we know it, yet they never explain why or how it would do this. Allowing gays to marry should have no impact on those who wish to take part in a heterosexual marriage. It does not interfere with their marriage or their lifestyle. Gays do no impose their lifestyle on heterosexuals so why should heterosexuals always want to impose their lifestyle on gays? The two can, and always have functioned independently alongside each other. Why should the fact that two gay people are married rather than just living together have any effect on heterosexual marriage? Are those in heterosexual marriages so insecure that they do not feel comfortable in the lifestyle they have chosen? This is only a moral issue for those who wish to make it one; personally, I think it is immoral to deny gays the same rights as heterosexuals. Gay marriage has no impact on my life, and should have none on the lives of anyone but gays, on which the impact is positive.

Dr. Paul Cameron of the Family Research Council of Colorado Springs, Colorado, has come up w

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this subject, possibly because it was not until fairly recently that homosexual couples were allowed to adopt children. His claim in this regard is that children of homosexuals are three times more likely to be homosexuals themselves than children raised in a heterosexual family. However, he neglects to note how many homosexuals were raised in heterosexual families for comparison. Cameron's conclusion is that while traditional marriage provides benefits for both the participants and the community (what the benefits to community are he doesn't say), gay marriage harms everyone it touches, but he doesn't say how, including the homosexuals themselves (Cameron, 1999). Cameron claims homosexual marriage places the participants at increased risk for HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases, and an increased threat of domestic violence. Interestingly, Cameron compares raising children in a homosexual marriage to having single parents raising children, saying that raising children without a father in the home, results in children who do poorly in school, get in trouble with the law, and become dysfunctional adults. Since half of all marriages end in divorce, and the rate of single motherhood is climbing dramatically in

Category: Psychology - G