Pro gay marriage (Essay Sample)

Pro gay marriage
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The soaring support for gay marriage over the last decade or so is among the largest transformation in opinion on any policy subject over this time period. President Obama’s statement earlier last year in support of gay marriage attracted strong arguments for and against this type of union. Nonetheless, the shift in favor of gay marriage among the population is evident. Expectedly, debates concerning gay marriage draw in both social and legal arguments (Feingold S & George, 2006). This article uses social perspective to demonstrate that gay marriages have a place in our society. Gay marriages have the same interests as opposite-sex marriages including spreading love.
History about our society insinuates that marriage is an institution where a woman and man join hands in the promise of love. As such, the basic rationale for any type of marriage lies in its serving specific legitimate and important interests of those in marriage. Restricting marriage between same- sex couples is basically a denial of love to the society. As earlier mentioned, historically, marriages are intended to propagate love throughout the society. Marriage should therefore be framed as fundamentally a package of benefits and obligations including love. Similar to heterosexual marriages, gay marriage is brought about by a common denominator of love. It is worth noting that the persons involved in gay marriage share the benefit of love. Though opponents tend to accept that there is some form of love in gay marriages, they are quick to claim that this type of love is not beneficial to the society. Time and again, they forget that it is all a matter of different conception of love and or marriage. Critics should understand that some people –whether gay or heterosexual- are not interested in offspring during marriage. In addition, those in gay marriages can always adopt children and live with them as their own. Altogether, it is evident that love exists in gay marriages and individuals involved in these types of marriages can be beneficial to any society.
Additionally, our society is essentially structured according to basic conditions such as equality for men and women regardless of sexual orientation. These conditions often insist on parity and equality. Admittedly, the legal perspective is also required to reinforce as well as support the meaning of equality and parity. Opponents of gay marriage time and again are opportunists because they tend to use the legalistic view in opposing same-sex marriage. They forget that marriage is primarily a traditional way of life and possesses a certain social meaning or dimension. This social meaning comprises of the shared expectations and or understanding that have accumulated over centuries throughout the society. Marriage is therefore fundamentally a conventional way of life instilled with social meaning and held in place by laws (National Conference of State Legislations, 2001). As such, the ban on same-sex marriage is thus cruel because laws designed to outlaw fail to look into social dimension about marriage. One can only conclude that the ban of gay marriages does not support the liberal fact; that it is critically unjust do deny marriage rights to gay couples. What is more, the society is time and again at the forefront in agitating for rights- though selectively. All in all, gay marriages should not be banned because they have the meaning of marriage in society.
It is worth noting that though shared by all members of a society, expectations and understandings over marriage are individual. Marriage is at its core a familiar institution and all members of society –including children- have heard about it. In fact, they also have some notion of what marriage involves. This generally shared understanding does not leave any room for controversial doctrines including such conventional beliefs as those claiming that marriage signifies a holy union. In essence, our understanding must not contain more mundane assumptions about what marriage is normally like. These assumptions revolve around the suggestion that in normal circumstances marriage is about sexual intimacy (often leading to childbirth in heterosexual marriages), involves the partners’ cooperation in tackling the economic and domestic necessities of life and people enter into marriage with a mutual long-term obligation to sustaining their relationship. Such mundane suggestion aside, marriage is as social institution that has benefits. Whether gay or heterosexual marriage, couples give a signal to the community that they do not necessarily intend to be perceived in the light of the generally shared assumptions about marriage. The rest of the society is not obligated to understand the couple’s relationship based on set assumptions. However, this will continue happening marriage is a familiar and understood institution. Virtually the entire community is in a position to understand the signal that is sent by a couple. In this manner, gay marriages’ social meaning enables the couples to communicate information regarding their union in a particularly effective way. It is worth remembering that not all people care about tangible benefits in marriage including health care, money and others. All in all, if such critical tangible benefits resulting fro...