It is unfortunate that there is such a growing stigma attached to arguing against gay marriage at least here in the liberal bastion that is massachusetts. If one is opposed to legalizing gay marriage, it is automatically assumed that the opposition rests on a basis of hate, homophobia, or other such negative motivations. There are, in fact, legitimate, substantive reasons as to why gay marriage should not be legalized. Opposition to gay marriage has such a negative connotation because advocates have successfully framed the issue as one of equal rights. By this logic, if you oppose gay marriage, you are opposed to equal rights for everyone. They claim that the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment guarantees them the right to marry whomever they desire, including members of the same sex.

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But do all people have the right to marry whomever they want already, with the exception of same sex couples? no states have laws regulating marriage, forbidding first cousins from marrying, brothers and sisters from marrying, parents and offspring from marrying, and people from marrying animals, inanimate objects, or multiple other individuals. Why is marriage regulated by the government at all? in fact, not only are there restrictions on certain types of marriages, but there are incentives for heterosexuals not falling into the categories above to marry. Why should the government encourage through tax breaks and other benefits some types of marriages while banning others? the rationale is that males and females, when married, are more likely to procreate, thus ensuring the continuation of american society. It is certainly to america’s advantage to have citizens, so there exists a compelling state interest justifying government subsidization of heterosexual marriage. The banned types of marriage are similarly rationalized offspring from family members who marry are significantly more likely to be sterile, thus unable to continue the proliferation of society, or otherwise impaired.

It is therefore not in the interest of government to encourage these types of marriages. Same sex couples are unable to procreate, meaning that there is no compelling interest to subsidize their marriages. At this point, many would argue that the happiness of same sex couples would be enhanced by gay marriage, thus providing a compelling interest. The government has already shown through prohibiting certain types of marriage that it does not view enhanced happiness as a compelling enough interest to encourage marriage of any kind. After all, if enhanced happiness was a compelling interest, it could be used to justify government subsidization of chocolate, which is proven to increase happiness through the release of certain endorphins. In fact, one could argue that the government should subsidize anything and everything that makes someone happy. Thus, enhanced happiness can clearly not be considered a compelling enough interest to justify the recognition and, therefore, subsidization of gay marriage.

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While same sex couples certainly cannot reproduce themselves, artificial insemination for lesbians would be an option. Or it might be argued that the government should subsidize gay marriages to make it easier to adopt. Despite neither arguments of these being good enough reasons to justify legalizing any of the types of banned marriages discussed earlier, it bears discussing. Regarding families where the father is absent, research by university of canterbury professor bruce j. Ellis has shown that, greater exposure to father absence was strongly associated with elevated risk for early sexual activity and adolescent pregnancy. This is relevant to the debate around same sex marriage because, in lesbian couples, any daughter would certainly be growing up apart from their biological father, thus increasing the risk of these unfortunate effects.

Further evidence on the importance of having both a mother and father is provided by stanford psychologist eleanor maccoby, who points out that mothers, on average, may have somewhat stronger parental ‘instincts’ when it comes to responding to young infants. An increasing body of evidence shows that it is indeed more advantageous for children to grow up having both a mother and a father. Once again, we cannot put the enhanced happiness that same sex couples would get from raising a child above the well being of that child. Gay marriage is not a civil rights issue it is a question of whether or not there exists a compelling enough interest for the government to subsidize and encourage gay marriage. As same sex couples cannot procreate and, in fact, have the potential to harm any children they might raise, it is certainly in the interest of the federal government to maintain the stance it presented in the defense of marriage act doma. Section 2 states the word ‘marriage’ means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word ‘spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.

more by this author on august 25th of 1985 a beautiful baby boy was born, his mother and father named him billy. Billy soon grew big and strong, he had beautiful ice blue eyes and pale blonde hair that made him look like an angel, which is what his mother called him, her little angel. She told him how he would find some beautiful girl and they would fall in love then, they would get married and have many pretty little babies and live happily ever after, just like his mommy and daddy had. While his guy friends were kissing the girls, billy was helping the girls when the same boys hurt them. They trusted that he wouldn’t tell anyone and that he could help them when were sad.

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When billy was 16 his friend john asked him if he ever thought about kissing a boy. Billy admitted that the thought has crossed his mind and figured that it had to be no different from kissing a girl, he admitted to having been kissed by a few of his girlfriends, when they were sad or crying they sometimes would kiss him, not a friendly kiss either. He knew it was wrong that they were hurt and if he continued then he would be taking advantage of them, he didn’t want to be someone that did that, he was the one where the girls would come to when a guy had used them, if he used them where would they go to? he didn’t want to be like them. While billy was thinking john had leaned in and kissed him, he found it strange how ever, not in a bad way.

He found it strange that johns kiss was very different from the ones he has received in the past. Different from susan’s and jen’s which had been desperate for affection, and unlike lucy’s that had been forceful and demanding. John didn’t want to scare him away, billy could feel it, he also felt something he had never felt before. From that day on billy knew that he most defiantly wasn’t like the other boys, as the other boys were looking at girls, billy was looking at the boys. How could he possibly tell his mom and dad that their angel wouldn’t give them grandchildren, and he as a only child, their only hope. He wouldn’t find that pretty girl and marry her and live happy ever after like they had hoped. Ssm or same sex marriage is no different from a woman and a man getting married, if not harder.

The not only have to dead with legal issues that straight marriages need to like wills, money, taxes, mortgaged, property taxes and even the fact that they have to deal with each other on top of all that, they have to deal with strangers stares, those who look down on them for being a man and a man or a woman and a woman, people feel as if they are freaks, but they are no different from me and you. If you think so give me three reasons how a human being could be a bad person just for who they love. It is? you mean there's really a passage in the holy book that says, if gays wed they shall be sent to hell for all of eternity ? well, there are a lot of things in the bible and you who never seem to heed the other things. Why are you suddenly be so devout and literal minded? also, people say it'll destroy the sanctity of straight marriage. No that's already been quite shattered, and we only have ourselves to blame for that. We have long desacnatized marriage by cheating and lying and bringing unwanted children into the world and then divorcing when was sick of the person. How would two adults tying the knot destroy the sanctity of anything? the general accounting office of the federal government in 1997, in a 75 page brief prepared for the chairman of the house judiciary committee enumerated some 1,049 laws giving rights to married heterosexual couples these rights are denied to gay couples.

In an editorial from march of 20, the new jersey law journal gives some examples of rights denied to committed same sex couples. Same sex couples who are prohibited from marrying are excluded from a plethora of legal benefits specifically tied to legally recognized marriage: for example, access to a spouse's medical, life and disability insurance hospital visitation and medical decision making privileges… workers' compensation survivor benefits spousal benefits and retirement plans…the right to refuse to testify against one's spouse… and many others. These instances of discrimination based on the preference for legally married couples effect many people negatively when they least expect it. Unmarried heterosexual couples, however, have the option of being legally married. These are just some of the privileges homosexual couples can’t have just because they are gay. In fact, if you make fun of someone for being gay in schools what happens? you get sent to the principal’s office if a teacher hears. Now if we protect the gays in school and treat them equally there, why does this not apply in the real life? why must we single out gays and refuse them to be happy just because they are attracted to the same gender.

John asked billy if he would like to go get coffee and catch up, he agreed and they did. John then asked him on a date after billy admitted to him that he was now indeed gay and had been with a few men but none of them really worked out. A year and a half later john proposed to billy, he looked at him and moved his pale hair away from his blue eyes and told him that when he looks in his eyes he gets lost and that it was like swimming in the middle of the ocean with no boat for when he got tired to rest on, but he would never get tired and he never wanted to stop being there. He also told him that he makes him happier then he has ever been and how he wanted to spend the rest of his life with him. And inside the box was a simple gold band that said forever and always he asked him if he would be his life partner and billy quickly said yes.