Sociology

Gay marriage has increasingly become an issue of discrimination despite an escalating number of gay couples in the United States. Despite the significant number of gay couples, they cannot legally marry in most states (White, 238) because of the negative perception of gay marriages in the American society. There is no problem with gay marriage and every person has the right to marry the person he or she is in love with.

The protection and benefits extended to opposite-sex couples need to be extended to the same-sex couples according to the Supreme Court ruling on the case of Baker v. Vermont (1999). In Vermont, the gay couples had been deprived of their benefits until the court gave a declaration on equal rights to gay couples in 1999 and in April 2000, a bill that allowed same-sex civil union was approved by the Vermont legislature. 

According to Martha C. Nussbaum, a supporter of gays and lesbians marriages, the gays have a homosexual orientation and have a characteristic and stable desire to have sex with members of similar sex just like a man may have a desire to have sex with a woman. However, the most basic discrimination against gay men and lesbians has been the denial of their rights to have consensual and adult sex relations (White, 239) which should stop in order for the society to perceive gay marriage as legal.

An example of opponents of gay marriages is Jeff Jordan. Jordan believes that the gay marriages may make the citizens to support practices which they find religiously or morally objectionable. However, Jordan to some extent supports gay marriages and provides that the states should tolerate private homosexual acts (White, 240) as the single tolerable way to give a solution to the existing public quandary concerning same-sex marriages.

Maggie Gallagher is a great opponent of same-sex marriage. She argues that marriage should only exist so that the society can motivate family organizations in ensuring that all children are raised up by their biological father and mother and recommends that same-sex marriage will hurt the current social institutions by disconnecting the link between marriages and babies(White, 241) and therefore advocates for the ban on same-sex marriages. Although Gallagher attacks the issue of same-sex marriage, her objections do not appeal to religious teachings about the immorality of homosexuality, (White, 241) and leaves out the key point of showing the problem of homosexuality.

Other opponents have argued that marriage should be for procreation and that gay couples will not afford to have children on their own. Rauch quickly attacks this statement and refers this reasoning as pure hypocrisy and provides that people should acknowledge there are other compelling reasons for marriage other than children (White, 262) and these reasons may or may not be relevant to gay marriages. He defends that Whether gay marriage makes sense-and, for that matter, whether straight marriage makes sense-depends on what marriage is actually for (White, 258) and as a homosexual, he demands for the actual marriage and not just the rights when his preferred man (marriage couple) comes along.

Significant support for gay marriages continues to be received from human rights activists. Jonathan Rauch greatly defends the rights of gay couples and claims that secular marriages must not give many deliberations to religious dogmas. He denies that the giving of the gay couples the rights to marry will have undesirable effects to the entire society.

Rauch advocates for respect of gay marriages by recognizing the high courts endorsement in Ontario, Canada which provides that marriage is, without dispute (White, 267) and that through marriage the gay couples can openly express their commitment and love to each other without discrimination and causing concerns or disputes. Rauch tries to show that the similar manner opposite-sex couples are respected should be the same way gay couple should be appreciated.

In general, gay marriage should be allowed in order to protect the rights of gay couples. The image that the society has already drawn about gay marriage need to be erased and a positive viewpoint should be established. The good image of gay marriages can only be reconstructed through constitutional amendments in the states that condemn gay marriages.