A Practical Look at Gay Marriage

We’ve all heard the arguments both for and against gay marriage. Gay rights can be a very hot under the collar topic for those on either side of the fence. I’’ve listened to the arguments, and I feel there are some very important elements being completely overlooked. As a writer, I feel obligated to speak my mind.

At one time the same arguments were made about interracial marriage. If you take the time to go back in time far enough, the same arguments were presented about inter-class marriages. Interfaith marriages faced the same issues in history. This looks like a pattern. And while there are plenty of people out there who disagree with these legalized marriages, there is no evidence that the world exploded because we allowed and then finally embraced them.

So for just one moment, lets’’ remove the emotion and the degradation that goes along with denying gay marriage and look at it from a purely logical perspective. Despite legislation, you are not going to keep two people who love each other apart. If we look at the societies which have permitted legalizing gay marriage, they score higher in every determining factor that creates a ‘Good society.’” Their crime rate is lower, their unemployment is lower, their suicide rates are lower, and the list goes on.

Marriage is a legal agreement. If you remove the emotion and look at it realistically, a marriage is two people who enter a legal agreement. Before women had the right to choose who they married, there was a marriage license, a document that stated that she was basically the man’s property and she would obey him and all that jazz. Thank God we’’ve progressed beyond that, but there are legal requirements and obligations that a married couple must adhere to. Adultery is still on the books as an illegal act.

What the gay community has been denied is the right to legal contract with each other in order to provide a good life for themselves and their families. Thus in turn they have turned to the next best thing, holy unions. A holy union happens in a church with the blessing of pastors or rabbis or whoever is leading the ceremony, and the two individuals of the same sex are asking to be united in the eyes of God.

What denying the legal contract really does is create more societal issues. Gay parents of children can not always get them fair and reasonable health coverage because one spouse can not cover them through work health insurance. So now we have more kids on government sponsored health care plans. We have more kids on government sponsored programs because there is no legal commitment made to ensure that an estranged spouse pays child support in the event of ‘divorce.’” We have created a situation where by denying the gay community the legal right to take care of their families the way a straight couple can that we force the government to take care of people who would otherwise be able to stand on their own.

And please don’t offer up that if they were straight these things wouldn’t happen. Straight people get divorced. Straight people get laid off, and straight people experience financial difficulties. It is their legal commitments to each other that keep their heads above water. Without that legal commitment, families within the gay community would have no choice but to turn to government sponsored programs.

Let’s not even argue that gay people shouldn’t have children. If we were to have that argument, we may as well go ahead and make other restrictions, such as intelligence requirements. We could them visit the notion that anyone who has been to prison shouldn’t be allowed to have children. Where will we stop and say that it’s ok to have children. Should we have to submit a W-2 before having children? The government has no right to determine what a woman does with her body. That has been established in the 70s with Roe vs. Wade.

Most people that have the strongest objection to gay marriage have strong religious values. It is way past time to point out that by taking such a harsh religious stand on this issue, the gay community can ONLY turn to the church for holy unions, a marriage under God. The gay community is simply asking for the legal aspects of marriage to protect their families. The same way interracial couples and interclass couples and interfaith couples have had to beg for in the past.