These percentages are illustrated in Figure 3.
Interestingly, research has demonstrated that the when public opinion is sought between "gay marriage" and "civil union" the results differed greatly. Although the rights being suggested were similar, when framed as gay marriage, the discussions became polarized along ideological lines, than when framed as civil unions ("Framing," n.d.). Clearly individuals were less threatened by the idea of civil unions than gay marraiges, even if the details of the two concepts were similar. However, Craig, Martinez, Kane, and Gainous (2005) found that many individuals were ambivalent to gay rights issues. With the polarized nature of gay rights, these researchers found that individuals most often had differing viewpoints depending on what the specific topic of gay rights involved, with both positive and negative opinions.
Figure 3: Public Opinion for Civil Unions
(Source: "A stable majority," 2008)
The Constitutional Right to Privacy and Gay Marriage:
Proponents of gay marriage insist that the right for gays and lesbians to marry is a matter of constitutional privacy. The Fourth Amendment to the Bill of Rights suggests the rights to individual privacy are important. It states that individuals have a right "to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized" ("Bill of Rights," n.d.). The Ninth Amendment too broadens this right of privacy by stating that the list in the Bill of Rights is not all inclusive. Numerous court cases, both directly related and indirectly related, have sought to determine just where an individual's right to privacy begins and ends. To date, gay marriage has not been found to be included in this broadly defined right to privacy....
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
Gay Marriage Gaiety is the practice of bossom love for similar sex and especially between two males or females, bisexual exclusive. "Continued engagement into such practices more often than not lead to desire to attain psychosocial satisfaction through intense urge to achieve a feeling of love and sense of belonging" (Abraham Maslow - Hierarchy of Needs). Hence eventually becoming life long partners as depicted in gay marriages, but marriage is defined
Instead, give gay and straight couples alike the same license, a certificate confirming them as a family, and call it a civil union -- anything, really, other than marriage. For people who feel the word marriage is important, the next stop after the courthouse could be the church, where they could bless their union with all the religious ceremony they wanted. Religions would lose nothing of their role in sanctioning
Three other significant arguments are worth mentioning. First, that gay marriage undermines the sanctity of marriage in some way, and secondly that marriage is purely for the sake of procreation --which is impossible in a gay marriage, and that moreover children are likely to be disadvantaged by such unions. These last two arguments are rather contradictory, as the one argument generally suggests that gay marriages should not be allowed because
However, society's consciousness matured and grew in understanding of what a loving community is, and came to realize that to exclude other human beings based on prejudice is not God's love, but rather fear and ignorance (Conan). According to Kohut, 14% of the general population in American society believes that homosexuality is due to upbringing, 42% believe it is a matter of lifestyle, and 30% believe people are born homosexual
Its historical design is founded in the marriage relationship and thus depends wholly thereupon" (85). Advocates of same-sex marriages maintain that gay and lesbian partners need the legal framework of marriage to provide them with the same protections that are enjoyed by their heterosexual counterparts; however, these individuals already enjoy the same constitutional protections afforded all American citizens. According to Coolidge, Duncan, Strasser and Wardle (2003), any laws that
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