Same-Sex Marriage: Equality in Commitment

Same sex marriage bans are a violation of civil rights. While the federal government does not license marriages, it does sanction state licensed marriages, and uses marital status as a determining factor in eligibility of federal programs. Homosexuals are prohibited from equal protection under law, equal opportunity to exercise the privileges of citizenship, and to otherwise participate fully in national life, because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Civil rights are expected to be equal to all, regardless of race, religion, sex, or other characteristics unrelated to the worth of the individual. Denying homosexuals the right to marry is discriminatory, unethical and unconstitutional.

In 1978, the United States Supreme Court declared marriage to be “of fundamental importance to all individuals” in Zablocki v. Redhail. The court described marriage as “one of the ‘basic civil rights of man’” and “the most important relation in life.” The court also noted that “the right to marry is part of the fundamental ‘right to privacy’” in the U.S. Constitution. (Murphy, 2000)

Discrimination

Discrimination is the treatment of a group of people differently, based on prejudices about that group of people. Prejudices are judgments made about another person or group of people based on often fictional stereotypes and differences between the person making the judgment and the person being judged. These prejudices do not always involve a conscious thought process, but sometimes are a born out of a lack of desire to fight those stereotypes and prejudices. The most common form of discrimination is based on the differences between people, and self-righteous feelings of superiority by the discriminating people. Societal norms and values are determined by the dominating group holding the tradition of power, which in the U.S consists of the white, heterosexual, Protestant, male European descendants who first “settled” North America.

The Arguments

Arguments against same-sex marriage include, but are not limited to, religious values, societal norms, marriage as a means of procreation, and idealism of the nuclear family. Most, if not all, of the arguments made against same-sex marriage are based on discrimination.

Those using the argument that marriage is a religious institution that has benefits protected by the government, base their argument on their religious beliefs being superior and the only religion worth considering, which is why their Christian values are the dominant values of our society. There are two problems with this argument. One is that it holds little merit in a country that grants religious freedom and freedom from religion as a right to its citizens. The other is that Christianity mandates that marriage must be between a man and a woman. This issue has been an irrelevant source of much contention, with each side of the same sex marriage debate spinning the interpretive context of the Bible to fit their argument.