Why same Sex Marriage should be Legal

When it comes to marriage, things can be complicated. Marriage is one of the toughest things you can put yourself through, but it is also the most rewarding. It shows you can become two strong individuals together in unison, being happy and doing everything together. Although that is said, same sex marriage is very much the same, the LGBT community wants to be a part of this, but the United States is not giving them the rights that they should have. When it comes to same sex marriage, it is more of a civil rights issue than anything. They are not being allowed their right as a human being to marry the person that they love with their whole heart. A lot of people do not care about anyone in the LGBT community. They think of them as a next to nothing and are not even human. It is harsh, but it is real. As the United States of America, we need to start accepting LGBT communities into our lives because they are human too. We need equal rights and civil rights for all. They should have the option to marry whoever they want, whenever they want.

When it comes to same sex marriage, we have come a long way in America, but we still struggle with people who decide to discriminate a couple, if they see them out in public. They will call them names, shout at them and abuse them verbally. It just shows that as a country, we have not accepted them as a whole, even if passed a law by the Supreme Court of the United States on June 26, 2015, that a fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same sex couples by the Fourteenth Amendment, and that states must allow same-sex marriage. When it comes to the United States of America, we are still growing, every year. In Nicholas Mirkay’s article called, “50 Years of Loving: A Reflection On Seeking Justice Through Love and Relationships,” discusses the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Loving v. Virginia on laws prohibiting interracial marriage with civil rights. It also mentions in this article the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges on marital rights of interracial and same sex couples and racial equality in marriage and the struggle for same sex marriage recognition.

Nicholas Mirkay is a Senior Associate Dean and Professor of law at Creighton University School of Law. When it comes to the legal rights of same sex marriage, there are many problems. They are being denied as a result of not being allowed to marry. In Gregory Herek’s article called,”Anti-Equality Marriage Amendments and Sexual Stigma,” he discusses the sexual stigma being attached to behavior and marriage inequality as structural stigma. Gregory Herek is a Professor of Psychology at the University of California at Davis, where he teaches courses on prejudice, sexual orientation and survey research methodology. There are still certain stigmas around same-sex marriage. That stigma is causing states to ignore the Fourteenth Amendment, which says they should be able to marry whoever they want to, whenever they want too, thus making it a civil rights issue. As an LGBTQ+ community need to fight for our rights against stigmas.

When it comes to same sex marriage, there is still so many people today, who will not except someone if they are gay. It has gotten better over the years, but it is still prominent. People still will be judged walking down the street. For example, if a male is wearing makeup, usually someone will call them out and not say something nice. In Kenji Yoshino’s article called “Preface,” it discusses a new paradigm for civil rights and he also discusses covering. Covering is to tone down a disfavored identity to fit into the mainstream. Kenji Yoshino is the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University. The reason why covering is so prevalent to LGBT community is because people have no choice to cover because they are judged every day. This also prevalent when it comes to same sex marriage because when you see a couple walking down the street that is two females, usually someone will say something. For example, Kenji says, “Long after they came out as lesbians, Rosie O’Donnell and Mary Cheney still covered, keeping their same sex partners out of the public eye.” (Yoshino 453) What this means is that, this couple felt so uncomfortable in the public eye, that they felt they had to hide in order to feel normal. There is such a stigma-based analysis of same sex marriage. People who feel slightly uncomfortable around people who are part of the LGBT community. This causes a major issue when it comes to people becoming fearful of going out because they could be yelled at by a random person.

There have also been cases of people hiding in alleys at LGBT clubs with a knife and waiting for a person to come out and then stabbing them. That is how dire it is. What this is called is sexual stigma. Sexual stigma is the stigma attached to any nonheterosexuality behavior, identity, relationship and bisexual sexual orientation. The stress of this sexual stigma has put a great deal of stress on the LGBT community. They must worry about the fact that they could get hurt at any moment. For no reason. In Herek’s article, he says, “Like sexual orientation, sexual stigma is also about relationships. Whereas enactments of sexual stigma (e.g., antigay discrimination, violence) typically target individuals, they are based on those individuals’ actual, imagined, or desired relationships with others of the same sex.” (Herek 414) This means that no matter what you do, people will target you based off your sexual orientation. Which should be illegal in my opinion, because if a person went up to a black person and stabbed them for no reason, there would be tons of medica coverage. But, if a gay man were to get stabbed for no reason, there would be none to a little media coverage.

When it comes to civil rights, same sex marriage couples have been fighting for recognition for years. It has been a nonstop battle to see if they can have a kid together, legally. Be able to share a home together. The most important part about this is being able to share things. When you are married, you want to be able to equally share what you have with your partner. For a long time, this was not possible. In recent years, the supreme court has gone through trails to protect families. The Supreme Court had a trail called Obergefell, it states that protecting children and families of same-sex couples was a key rationale it its determination that the right to marry is fundamental under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. In Mirkay’s article, she says, “The Court Acknowledged the “loving and nurturing homes” provided to children of same-sex couples and that “[w]ithout the recognition, stability and predictability marriage offers, the children suffer the stigma of knowing their families are somehow lesser.” (Mirkay 690) This means that they decided that you must have a stable home, if you were a same sex couple that wanted to get married with a child. Then Obergefell was handed down by the Supreme Court and same sex couples could legally be recognized. But the story does not end there, to this day we are still fighting for civil rights in other areas.

In Russel Robinson and David Frost’s article called “The Afterlife of Homophobia,” it discusses about the past 15 years the LGBTQ movement in the United States has vanquished sodomy laws, the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy and laws banning same-sex marriage. It also discusses the disparity between social acceptance of same-sex marriage and persistent aversion to sex between men. Russel Robinson is a professor of law at University of California. David Frost is a senior lecturer in social psychology at University College London. When it comes to same sex marriage, granting legal marriage rights under the law must extend to gays and lesbians to ensure that all citizens enjoy full human rights. When it comes to same sex marriage, it is getting better, but very slowly. Our generation has changed things for the future. In Robinson and Frost’s article they say “Mainstream media outlets and several prominent LGBTQ commentators breathlessly described marriage equality as the final great civil-rights movement.

Because the marriage-equality breakthrough was fueled by an unprecedented surge in public support for same-sex marriage, particularly among young Americans.” (215) This means that we as a generation, have made change. We pushed the boundaries of the LGBTQ movement and made sure everyone had equal rights. We still are growing but we are getting there. When it comes to our civil rights, there has always been a lot of unanswered questions.

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