Ten Reasons to Support Gay Marriage | Psychology Today

Contents:

• TEN REASONS TO SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE
• GROWG SUPPORT FOR GAY MARRIAGE: CHANGED MDS AND CHANGG DEMOGRAPHICS
• SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?
• 8 REASONS TO SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE ...
• 27 REASONS TO SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE
• WHY NOT ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE?
• GAY MARRIAGE

TEN REASONS TO SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE

Homosexualy is a normal part of adult sexualy; gay men and lbians posss the same potential and sire for staed lovg and lastg relatnships as heterosexuals, cludg lovg and parentg children.

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. 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. In her rearch, Twenge said she’s found that as the US beme more dividualistic and Amerins stopped viewg gay and lbian people as a monolh, their attus toward same-sex marriage beme more posive.

GROWG SUPPORT FOR GAY MARRIAGE: CHANGED MDS AND CHANGG DEMOGRAPHICS

A new natnal survey fds that much of the shift is attributable to the arrival of a large hort of young adults – the Millennial generatn – who are far more open to gay rights than prev generatns. In 2003, as the bate over same-sex marriage tensified and Massachetts beme the first state to allow same-sex marriage, a 56% majory of Amerins felt that allowg gays and lbians to marry would unrme the tradnal Amerin fay, while 39% disagreed.

SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?

Other trends have shown siar movement sce 2003: The percentage sayg same-sex upl n be as good parents as heterosexual upl has risen 10 pots (to 64%) and there has been a parable crease the percentage sayg that general homosexualy should be accepted, rather than disuraged, by society. The partisan and mographic differenc opns about societal acceptance of homosexualy are mirrored attus related to same-sex marriage, cludg whether would nflict wh people’s relig beliefs and unrme the tradnal fay.

Generatnal differenc about homosexualy largely mirror attus about same-sex marriage, wh about three-quarters of Millennials (75%) and 62% of Gen Xers now sayg homosexualy should be accepted. While about two-thirds of both Democrats (66%) and pennts (65%) now say homosexualy should be accepted, reflectg signifint shifts towards greater acceptance among the groups, Republin attus are largely unchanged om 2003 (38% of Republins say homosexualy should be accepted, 54% say should be disuraged).

8 REASONS TO SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE ...

Notably, whe male Prottants are the only relig group that has changed substantially on this qutn: In 2003 a 58% majory said gay marriage would go agast their relig beliefs; jt 44% say this today. And the growth support for same-sex marriage among male Prottants over this time is also substantial: Today 55% favor allowg gays and lbians to marry, up om 36% 10 years ago.

27 REASONS TO SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE

Although majori across all tnal groups say gay and lbian upl should be entled to the same rights, support for this posn creas wh tn: 76% of llege graduat agree wh the statement, pared wh 69% of those wh some llege experience and 58% of those who have not attend llege. If homosexual “marriage” is universally accepted as the prent step sexual “eedom, ” what logil arguments n be ed to stop the next steps of ct, pedophilia, btialy, and other forms of unnatural behavr?

The railroadg of same-sex “marriage” on the Amerin people mak creasgly clear what homosexual activist Pl Varnell wrote the Chigo Free Prs:"The gay movement, whether we acknowledge or not, is not a civil rights movement, not even a sexual liberatn movement, but a moral revolutn aimed at changg people's view of homosexualy. In tellectually opposg dividuals or anizatns promotg the homosexual agenda, our only tent is the fense of tradnal marriage, the fay, and the prec remnants of Christian civilizatn. Risg natnal support for legal same-sex marriage reflects steady creas among most subgroups of the populatn, even those who have tradnally been the most ristant to gay marriage.

Proponents of legal gay marriage ntend that gay marriage bans are discrimatory and unnstutnal, and that same-sex upl should have accs to all the benefs enjoyed by different-sex upl. On July 25, 2014 Miami-Da County Circu Court Judge Sarah Zabel led Florida’s gay marriage ban unnstutnal and stated that the ban “serv only to hurt, to discrimate, to prive same-sex upl and their fai of equal digny, to label and treat them as send-class cizens, and to em them unworthy of participatn one of the fundamental stutns of our society.

WHY NOT ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE?

The Amerin Psychologil Associatn, Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, and others nclud that legal gay marriage giv upl “accs to the social support that already facilat and strengthens heterosexual marriag, wh all of the psychologil and physil health benefs associated wh that support.

A 2010 analysis found that after their stat had banned gay marriage, gay, lbian and bisexual people suffered a 37% crease mood disorrs, a 42% crease alhol-e disorrs, and a 248% crease generalized anxiety disorrs.

In July 2012 New York Cy Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that gay marriage had ntributed $259 ln to the cy’s enomy jt a year sce the practice beme legal there July 2011.

GAY MARRIAGE

In 2012, the Williams Instute at the Universy of California at Los Angel (UCLA) found that the first five years after Massachetts legalized gay marriage 2004, same-sex weddg expendur (such as venue rental, weddg k, etc. 2016 printial ndidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fra stated that civil unns are aquate as an equivalent to marriage: “Benefs are beg btowed to gay upl [ civil unns]… I believe we need to rpect those who believe that the word marriage has a spirual foundatn… Why n’t we rpect and tolerate that while at the same time sayg ernment nnot btow benefs unequally.

Court papers filed July 2014 by attorneys fendg Arizona’s gay marriage ban stated that “the State regulat marriage for the primary purpose of channelg potentially procreative sexual relatnships to endurg unns for the sake of jog children to both their mother and their father… Same-sex upl n never provi a child wh both her blogil mother and her blogil father.

Contrary to the pro gay marriage argument that some different-sex upl nnot have children or don’t want them, even those s there is still the potential to produce children. Lee Badgett, PhD, Director of the Center for Public Policy and Admistratn at the Universy of Massachetts at Amherst, stated that for many gay activists “marriage means adoptg heterosexual forms of fay and givg up distctively gay fay forms and perhaps even gay and lbian culture. Pla Ettelbrick, JD, Profsor of Law and Women’s Studi, wrote 1989, “Marriage ns ntrary to two of the primary goals of the lbian and gay movement: the affirmatn of gay inty and culture and the validatn of many forms of relatnships.