What comes to mind when you hear the word marriage? Is it the big wedding? The white dress? The rings? The kiss? The repeating of vows? Or is it the stress of making it all happen? Marriage is a special moment in our lives. For a lot of us marriage is a major milestone, a transformation in identity to being a married person rather than single.
But on top of all this, marriage is an important legal status. Nothing says “love and commitment” like the word marriage.It is essential to know that there are two kinds of marriage ceremonies: Civil and Religious marriage. A civil marriage is marriage performed by a government official and not a religious organization. Civil marriage covers inheritance rights, property rights, the right to visit one another in the hospital, the conveying of benefits etc.
Then there is Religious marriage; this is interpreted by each religious group differently, but is usually conducted in a church, chapel or temple.Everyone wants to find love; to be in a serious relationship made up of trust and commitment. Whether your sexual orientation be straight, gay, lesbian or bisexual. Though the rights to marry isn’t equal for homosexual couples as it is for heterosexual couples. Some of the main and most important reasons people choose to ban homosexual marriage is because they are homophobic and/or think it is morally and biologically wrong for the human being and society. People with homophobia have an extreme and irrational aversion to homosexuality and homosexual people.
Opinionated outlooks directed at homosexuals often branch from the perception that homosexual activity is immoral. Homophobia makes some people think that they are superior to homosexuals. In fact, studies show that anti-gay bias is far more accepted among large numbers of Americans than is bias against other minorities. Majority of the people who think that Gay marriage is “morally” wrong are religious.
They study the words of the bible, and feel that being gay is a sin and will prevent you from being able to enter into heaven.From King James’ Version of the Bible, in Leviticus 20:13: “If a man also lie with a mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death, their blood shall be upon them” Another piece of scripture implying that being gay is a sin is in the New Testaments, I Corinthians 6:9-11:” Know ye, not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdoms of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extrotioners, shall inherit in the kingdom of God.”Meaning that people who commit sexual intercourse out of marriage, who worship idols other than god, who cheat, who have characteristics of a woman or unmanly(gay), who abuse, who are jealous, who are habitually drunk, who verbally abuse and blackmail/steal will not go to heaven. This scripture basically lists the sin of homosexuality as one of the specific sins that will literally keep you from being able to enter into heaven when you die and cross over. With marriage comes the hopes and dreams of having children and starting a family.This is where anti-gays feel that accepting gay marriage would be “biologically” wrong to society.
Same sex intercourse will not help with the reproduction of any individual. It’s more a way for gay promiscuity to increase. Consequently, if no off springs will be produced, and if gay marriage were to be legalized throughout the world we’ll lead to a fail in population and to increase in elderly individuals, similar to what is happening in Japan. Yet in the Netherlands, Belgium, Canda, Spain, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland and Argentina, gay marriage was granted between the years 2001-2010.In These countries and all over the world there are people who support gay marriage and there are people who do not. For instance Mike Judge, from the Christian Institute in the United Kingdom, suggests that the value of marriage will decrease if gay marriage is legalized in the United States as it was in the UK.
In his video he expresses his views on how same-sex marriage would affect “everybody’s” marriage, by using an analogy between opposite sex marriage and gay marriage.He does so by using an American 5 dollar bill symbolizing opposite sex marriage, calling it “real and genuine , but imagine if a counterfeit 5 dollar bill (symbolizing gay marriage) flooded the US economy. The American 5 dollar bill will continue to be real and genuine, but its value in the economy would be seriously damaged. If the special rights of marriage are given to any other relationship then the special values of marriage will diminish and that is what we’ve seen In the UK. I don’t want to see that happening in the United States”, said Mike Judge.But little did he know that, that same year when Civil Partnership Act was legalized in the UK, Massachusetts legalized same sex marriage, being the first in the United States with 5 other sprawling behind (Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire and District of Colombia).
But is gay marriage really such a bad idea as people might think? Straight and gay are just the same, they experience the same feelings, emotions and thoughts just like any other human. So there should clearly be the same rights for people with both kinds of "sexual preferences".But should there be? Or should we as people of the world strip these rights from the “gay” community? Ignoring their rights as a human being? In the United States our forefathers wrote “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” and that we should “hold these truths to be self-evident”. Clearly the six states that granted gay marriage took this well into consideration and finally made it law.And in the Holy Bible , King James’ version, I Peter 2:13-14 says “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake: Whether it be to the king as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.
” Meaning that we, the children of God must abide by the rules/laws set up by higher authority, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.So the question is, isn’t same sex marriage ultimately right since it is now law? While only 6 states granted Same-Sex marriage legal in the U. S. , the other 44 do not. But by denying the rights for gay marriage are they following their word? No they’re not. And because they are doing so they’re becoming” destructive of these ends””.
And “it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness. ”All in all, should the social, emotional and sexual lives and commitments of others be our concern? Do we have a legitimate right to decide whether people who have an emotional commitment to one another, should or shouldn’t be allowed to forge a bond consecrating or solemnizing that bond? We cannot construct one. We cannot justify one, and we can not expect other people to willingly cede to our authority because of what we think. Should we really be so quick to judge and jump to conclusions because we find something that we think is “abnormal” or “unnatural”? Or should we judge by their content not by their sexual orientation.
