by Aimee Farquharson
In America, only nine out of the fifty states support and recognize gay marriage. On the national level, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) defines marriage between only one man and one woman. This is discriminatory and homophobic. Gay marriage should be legalized nationally, and within all fifty states.
Some religions would say Jesus states that “marriage is a sacred, lifelong bond between one man and one woman” (Matthew 19:4-6); they oppose gay marriage because of their interpretations of the Bible. While religion should not be disrespected, American government has always decided that there should be a separation between church and state.
In Thomas Jefferson’s 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists, he wrote, “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.” American Government, specifically the Supreme Court, has since cited the phrase repeatedly in cases. The argument that gay marriage should not be legalized because of religious beliefs is allowing church to influence state, and the two are not remaining separate, which would mean government is forcing a religious view on its people.
Also, Americans who oppose gay marriage say traditionally marriage was an act that allows a man and a woman to procreate. According to Peter S. Sprigg, Senior Fellow for Policy Studies at the Family Research Council, “Marriage is a public institution because it brings together men and women for the reproduction of the human race, and keeps them together to raise the children produced by their union.” Since homosexual couples can not physically produce their own children, they do not fit into this old-fashioned idea of family structure.
A gay couple can raise a child in just as loving and nurturing of a home as heterosexuals. Abbie Goldberg, a psychologist at Clark University in Massachusetts who researches gay and lesbian parenting, says that “gay parents tend to be more motivated, more committed than heterosexual parents on average, because they chose to be parents.” Homosexual couples can adopt a child, have a child either created with their sperm and a surrogate mother, or created with an egg and a sperm donor. Gays and lesbians rarely become parents by accident, compared with an almost 50 percent accidental pregnancy rate among heterosexuals.
The acceptance of gay marriage hinges on how Americans feel about the issue. Since Americans have a history of creating second class citizens, government should not allow laws made based on religious beliefs and traditions established at the time women had no rights and slavery still existed. Decisions of personal freedom should be made based on what is morally right or wrong. Many Americans (such as Presidents Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton) in positions of power and intelligence support gay marriage. Not allowing gays to marry is discriminatory and unconstitutional.
The National Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) prohibits gays from getting married in the United States. Although nine states in America recognize and allow gay marriage, those married couples are being denied federal recognition and benefits that heterosexual married couples receive. DOMA prohibits “federal employees’ health insurance, for example, or Social Security and tax benefits,” according to Andrew Rosenthal from the New York Times.
Appeals in several DOMA cases are pending before the Supreme Court. A federal appeals court in New York was the second to rule that DOMA is unconstitutional, and Boston was the first. Both court systems ruled that the law violates the constitution’s equal protection clause which protects all citizens from state laws that deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, “DOMA deprives same sex couples of equal protection under the law. This ruling is an important step in ensuring the rights of men and women.” If the Supreme Court rules that DOMA is unconstitutional, it will be amended and all gay marriages will get federal recognition and benefits.
The 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia ruled that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the Equal Protection Clause. The Lovings, a black woman and white man, were wed in the District of Columbia in 1958. When they returned to their home state of Virginia (where state laws banned marriages between any white person and any non-white person), they were charged with a felony and sentenced to a year in jail. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a motion which ultimately ended in the Supreme Court cases ruling that discriminatory marriage clauses are unconstitutional.
This court case caused marriage to been seen as a basic civil right of mankind. Justice Stewart ruled that “Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.” Many who oppose gay marriage say that because Loving v. Virginia was about race, and race has a long documented history of discrimination, it is the only reason this ruling stood. Opposition would say that homosexuality doesn’t have a long history of discrimination and therefore does not apply to gay marriage. That thought process does not make sense because homosexuality does have a long history of discrimination. In 1951, the first gay rights organization was founded in the United States, today there are about 75 nationally recognized.
The ruling in Loving v. Virginia was in favor of interracial marriages because it was decided that the state cannot make a judgment on who can marry whom. According to court system ruling, marriage is a basic civil liberty. Freedom to marry is a human rights issue, whether it is about race or sexual orientation. Marriage formation should be an individual choice rather than exclusion based on social acceptance.
President Barack Obama announced his support for same sex marriage in May of 2012. Mr. President also put an end to DADT (Don’t Ask Don’t Tell) which discriminated against gay servicemen in the army. “I think same sex couples should be able to get married,” President Obama said in an interview with ABC news.
President Obama has said that DOMA is unconstitutional and has instructed his administration to no longer defend the law. Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised the decision as “a major turning point in the history of American civil rights. No American president has ever supported a major expansion of civil rights that has not ultimately been adopted by the American people – and I have no doubt that this will be an exception.” DOMA is unconstitutional and gay marriages should be legalized in all 50 states.
