In most public discsns, the issue of same-sex marriage is posed as a simple qutn – for or agast? – where to be for or agast is to be, more or ls, for or agast gay people. Although don’t…
Contents:
- SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?
- WHY “GAY MARRIAGE” IS BAD
- TEN REASONS TO SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE
- GAY MARRIAGE
SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?
* why gay marriage is bad *
Like heterosexuals, many lbian, gay, and bisexual people want to form stable, long-lastg relatnships and many of them do. In fact, rearchers have found that the majory of lbian, and gay, adults are mted relatnships and many upl have been together 10 or more years.
Empiril rearch also shows that lbian and gay upl have levels of relatnship satisfactn siar to or higher than those of heterosexual upl. How do laws that lim marriage to heterosexuals affect gay and lbian people? The fai and iends of lbian and gay upl who are nied marriage rights may also experience negative physil and mental health nsequenc siar to those experienced by their loved on.
WHY “GAY MARRIAGE” IS BAD
Proponents ntend that gay marriage bans are discrimatory and unnstutnal, opponents ague that marriage is primarily for procreatn. * why gay marriage is bad *
The vast majory of scientific studi that have directly pared lbian and gay parents wh heterosexual parents have nsistently shown that the same-sex upl are as f and pable parents as heterosexual upl, and that their children are jt as psychologilly healthy and well adjted. – where to be for or agast is to be, more or ls, for or agast gay people. Although don’t get much airtime beyond queer unterpublics, there is an adamantly left-wg, progrsive and pro-gay perspective that suggts same-sex marriage is not a necsary good.
Lbian and gay muni, and the femist muni wh which they have historilly overlapped, have long celebrated the valu of sexual diversy over the sexual nformy reprented by marriage and the ethil importance of sexual straight-talkg rather than the double-standards so equently observed marriage’s vicy. Gay men and lbians n sneak around wh the bt of them, of urse, but marriage, as is legally fed, generat ndns for dishonty, disavowal and sexual hypocrisy.
TEN REASONS TO SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE
There’s a tenncy among s proponents to reprent same-sex marriage as the fal chapter the story of gay acceptance, “the last civil right” as has sometim exaggeratedly been lled. It is large part bee of femist and gay novatns livg that marriage today is creasgly unrstood not as a relig but a social relatn; characterised not by male domatn but equaly and mutualy between the sex; valued not terms of s ntractual basis but terms of s ongog ntributn to a person’s sense of well-beg; and mataed not until ath-do--part but for as long as both parti fd satisfactn .
Rather than adm lbians and gay men to marriage as currently nceived, we should avow more fully the range of optns that characterise a lot of our liv and livg arrangements. Why not support and regnise the alternative timaci that gay muni, among others, have been velopg for s?
The argument favor of extendg legal marriage to same-sex upl pends primarily on wantg to extend the benefs and privileg of marriage to lbian and gay upl. Allowg gay men and lbians to marry will not stop marriage om beg exclnary. In regnisg some gay and lbian relatnships as marriag, same-sex marriage emphasis the ntued illegimacy of other sexual arrangements and the ntued excln of other social actors.
GAY MARRIAGE
Now this ragtag bunch might not seem as worthy of social protectn and prtige as the lovg, rg, long-term gay and lbian upl that are the shy new poster boys and girls for same-sex marriage.