Gay Marriage: Theologil and Moral Arguments - Markkula Center for Applied Ethics

Contents:

• GAYS AND LBIANS HAVE DIFFERENT REASONS TO GET MARRIED, STUDY SAYS
• GAY MARRIAGE
• GAY MARRIAGE: THEOLOGIL AND MORAL ARGUMENTS
• WHAT IS THE STATE OF GAY MARRIAGE THE US?
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

GAYS AND LBIANS HAVE DIFFERENT REASONS TO GET MARRIED, STUDY SAYS

For stance, 45% of adults the Silent Generatn (those born between 1928 and 1945) favor allowg gays and lbians to wed, pared wh 74% of Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996). 4As wh the general public, Amerins who intify as lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr (LGBT) are most likely to ce love as a very important reason for gettg married. Sce then, several other European untri – cludg England and Wal, France, Ireland, all of Sndavia, Spa and, most recently, Atria, Germany and Malta – have legalized gay marriage.

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. Most gay upl entered their unn whout kids, and that number remaed close to zero after marriage; the thors nclud that “the ma functn of registered partnership for gays is rource poolg, ” they wre the paper.

GAY MARRIAGE

” In other words, gay upl were more likely to get married to be and rourc; lbians tend to e marriage as a steppg stool towards creatg a fay, further emphasized by a spike lbians registerg for marriage 2002, the year when jot adoptn was ma legal. Inclus a summary of rearch fdgs on lbian mothers, gay fathers and their children; an annotated biblgraphy of the published psychologil lerature; and addnal rourc relevant to lbian and gay parentg.

APA is mted to endg the mory strs, social stigma, prejudice, discrimatn and vlence agast lbian, gay and bisexual dividuals through our learship, practice, rearch, tn and trag.

GAY MARRIAGE: THEOLOGIL AND MORAL ARGUMENTS

The Amerin Amy of Pediatrics policy statement support of same-sex marriage says that allowg gay and lbian parents to marry if they so choose is the bt terts of their children. When Print Barack Obama threw his admistratn’s support behd a challenge to Proposn 8, the gay-marriage ban enacted by California voters 2008, his Jtice Department troduced what amounted to a bizarre promise. Proposed that the Supreme Court le that stat like California, which had extend gay men’s and lbians’ “marriage le” alternativ like domtic partnership or civil unn, were vlatn of the nstutnal prohibn agast “separate but equal”—but was fe to offer no regnn at all.

Acrdg to the urt’s applitn of the equal-protectn clse, such a termatn would subject not only the marriage bans but a whole range of feral, state and lol laws that disadvantaged gay men and lbians (and possibly transgenred people, as well) to a higher level of judicial scty. Yet Jtice Anthony Kennedy, who had prevly wrten three watershed opns that had helped to tablish the full cizenship of gay men and lbians, had nsistently cled to see the s on those terms. He knew he was wrg for history, and that passage immediately adorned merchandise—to this day Etsy remas filled wh posters and noterds featurg Kennedy’s words—and is now often read at weddg ceremoni for both straight and gay upl.

WHAT IS THE STATE OF GAY MARRIAGE THE US?

Clayton County, the Supreme Court led that gay men, lbians, bisexual and transgenr people uld already not be nied work based on the law’s cln of “sex” as a basis on which employment discrimatn was prohibed. Early Years: Same-Sex Marriage Bans In 1970, jt one year after the historic Stonewall Rts that galvanized the gay rights movement, law stunt Richard Baker and librarian Jam McConnell applied for a marriage license Gerald Nelson rejected their applitn bee they were a same-sex uple, and a trial urt upheld his cisn. ” This lg effectively blocked feral urts om lg on same-sex marriage for s, leavg the cisn solely the hands of stat, which alt blow after blow to those hopg to see gay marriage beg 1973, for stance, Maryland beme the first state to create a law that explicly f marriage as a unn between a man and woman, a belief held by many nservative relig groups.

Though the gay rights movement saw some advancements the 1970s and 1980s—such as Harvey Milk beg the first openly gay man elected to public office the untry 1977—the fight for gay marriage ma ltle headway for many years. In 1989, the San Francis Board of Supervisors passed an ordance that allowed homosexual upl and unmarried heterosexual upl to register for domtic partnerships, which granted hospal visatn rights and other years later, the District of Columbia siarly passed a new law that allowed same-sex upl to register as domtic partners.

C., 1993, the hight urt Hawaii led that a ban on same-sex marriage may vlate that state nstutn’s Equal Protectn Clse—the first time a state urt has ever ched toward makg gay marriage Hawaii Supreme Court sent the se—brought by a gay male uple and two lbian upl who were nied marriage licens 1990—back for further review to the lower First Circu Court, which 1991 origally dismissed the the state tried to prove that there was “pellg state tert” jtifyg the ban, the se would be tied up ligatn for the next three Defense of Marriage Act Opponents of gay marriage, however, did not s on their hnch. Congrs 1996 passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which Print Bill Clton signed to didn’t ban gay marriage outright but specified that only heterosexual upl uld be granted feral marriage benefs. That is, even if a state ma gay marriage legal, same-sex upl still wouldn’t be able to file e tax jotly, sponsor spo for immigratn benefs or receive spoal Social Secury payments, among many other act was a huge setback for the marriage equaly movement, but transient good news arose three months later: Hawaii Judge Kev S.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Phg for Change: Civil Unns The next saw a whirlwd of activy on the gay marriage ont, begng wh the year 2000 when Vermont beme the first state to legalize civil unns, a legal stat that provis most of the state-level benefs of years later, Massachetts beme the first state to legalize gay marriage when the Massachetts Supreme Court led that same-sex upl had the right to marry Goodridge v. 2004 was notable for upl many other stat as well, though for the oppose reason: Ten typilly nservative stat, along wh Oregon, enacted state-level bans on gay marriage. Kansas and Texas were next 2005, and 2006 saw seven more stat passg Constutnal amendments agast gay towards the end of the , gay marriage beme legal var stat, cludg Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont (the first state to approve by legislative means) and New Hampshire.