Gay Marriage
Many same-sex couples want to be granted the right to legally marry. The reason is simple: They are in love with each other. They want to honor their relationship in the greatest way society has to offer, by making a public commitment to stand together in good times and bad life brings. While they receive some state-level protections, they do not receive most of the federal emotional and economic benefits and protections of marriage. They are denied their right to equal protection, both under the U.S. Constitution and some state constitutions. The paper will point out that supporting gay marriage by means of legal recognition is the most appropriate form of recognition of same sex partnerships because it eliminates discrimination occurring on the federal and some states' level. Referring to state court decisions of 2009 and 2012 and the well-known 2003 Lawrence vs. Texas decision of the Supreme Court, the paper will show that the currently very mixed picture regarding the legality of same sex marriage on the federal and (some) states' level urgently requires a solution by means of a nationwide legal recognition of the phenomenon. In its final part it will introduce opposing arguments and reasons on how to encounter them.
1. Clearly designate the problem that the policy you recommend or reject addresses
I would recommend the policy of legal recognition of gay marriages as the most appropriate form of recognition of same sex partnerships. The reason is that gay persons do not enjoy most of the federal and state emotional and economic benefits that come with marriage and are thus discriminated. There are two state court rulings from 2009 and one federal appeals court decision of 2012 to support this opinion. Even more important, there also is a Supreme Court decision of 2003 suggesting that - while the gay marriage controversy has many elements, including disagreements over religious and social norms - much of the debate is a purely legal one.
On May 21, 2009, the California Supreme Court closed another chapter in the state's long-running fight over same-sex marriage when it upheld a 2008 voter-approved ballot initiative, known as Proposition 8, which amended the California state constitution to ban gay marriage. A month earlier, on April 27, 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court had unanimously ruled that a state law defining marriage solely as a union between a man and a woman violated the Iowa Constitution's guarantee of equal protection (Masci and Merriam: 1). Most important in that regard is a famous decision of the United States Supreme Court of 2003 that marked a decisive turning point in the history of lesbians and gay men in the United States. In June 2003, the Supreme Court issued a landmark rule in the case of Lawrence vs. Texas that extended the right to privacy -- which includes the right to make decisions about one's intimate life -- to lesbians and gay men. The decision was hailed - and denounced -- as a sign of the dramatic shift in attitudes toward lesbian and gays. Just seventeen years earlier in its Bowers vs. Hardwick ruling, the court had dismissed the claim that anybody had a right to engage in homosexual activities as "facetious." In Lawrence, Justice Anthony Kennedy embraced the "liberty" of gay people to form relationships "whether or not [they are] entitled to formal recognition in the law," and condemned the Bowers decision for "for demean[ing] the lives of homosexual persons" (Chauncey: 1).
The most recent court decision in this series of decisions addressing the unconstitutionality of denying gay persons the right to marry is an early February 2012 ruling by a federal appeals court in California -- that the so called "Proposition 8," the ban on same-sex marriage, is unconstitutional. The decision reveals that gay marriage in the U.S. is more than just a black and white issue. Officially, the federal government does not recognize same-sex marriage, but some individual states do. And plenty more have laws or constitutional amendments that offer limited rights to same-sex couples (Match: 1).
Legal recognition would address the problem of discrimination that gay persons have to face in society (see Hill: 1). While it may not be readily apparent, marriage comes with a host of legal benefits and rights ranging from the ability to collect Social Security survivor's...
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