Support for Same-Sex Marriage

Imagine the spouse you have loved and resided with for years unexpectedly dies. Her two children from a male/female union were raised by you and her as your own. Now that she is dead, you have no right to burial or funeral involvement, no right or claim to her property or life insurance, and no legal custody or parental rights related to the children. This is because you are also a women and same sex marriage is not an option for you in 50 states in the nation. As such, denying legal marriage status and the rights attendant on it to same sex couples creates enormous emotional and economic pain and suffering to numerous individuals involved in same sex relationships.

One of my strongest moral convictions also happens to be one of my strongest political convictions, that same sex couples should have the right to be legally married in every state in America. Recently California and Massachusetts have not only permitted same sex marriage, but they have also repealed laws that maintain a state cannot marry couples from another state if their state of residence does not validate the marriage. While not gay or lesbian, I hold this conviction and believe it is a conviction all Americans should hold from a moral and political (i.e. legal) standpoint.

The issue of same sex marriage polarizes different groups in American society. Typically opposed to same sex marriage are Republi

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ld is injured, the partner of the mother has no legal status to make emergency medical decisions. Even more heinous, when a member of a same sex couple dies, the partner may be excluded by the "significant other's" family from having any say as to end of life decisions or burial or funeral plans. Families whose religious convictions make them opposed to same sex marriage or even express hatred of homosexuals may even ban the surviving partner from attending the funeral ceremonies. It does not take much empathy to be able to understand how painful and how much suffering anyone or all of these issues would be for the surviving partner of a same sex partnership. This is why I believe this is a moral and political conviction all Americans should hold. Morally, those opposed to same sex marriage have to understand the pain and suffering they would feel if experiencing anyone or all of these issues in the case of the death of their spouse. Politically, as Americans, all Americans should uphold the Constitutional rights of every other American or risk having those rights undermined one day on issues that might impact their own lives and cause them pain and suffering. With respect to legalizing same sex marriage, Biskupic (01A) arg

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