should gay marriage be legalized? by : kiara rowe
TRANSCRIPT
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