Gay Marriage Has Been a Debate for Many Years - Essay Example

One of the foremost debates, which have been occurring during the twenty-first century, has involved those of the gay community. It has become a question of civil rights in that “homophobia” has become the new racism of our time.  This has caused the gay community to formalize into protest groups to make their stand. In particular, the biggest political and social movements that we have seen have been the debate on gay marriage and more recently DADT, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.   Gay marriage has been a debate for many years. This has been extremely debated in the United States due to many reasons. The first reason that this has meant much resistance has been due to the abnormality of the issue. The government preaches a separation between the church and the state. Marriage has been recognized as the union between a man and a woman. In addition, there are many benefits, which come as a result of marriage. There are tax incentives as well as other benefits in social security by being coined the term marriage.  There has been political action taken by many states and countries. Certain states such as Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and the District of Colombia have legalized same-sex marriage, which makes them capable of receiving benefits at the state level. However, same-sex marriage is not recognized at the state level and President Barack Obama is strictly against the notion of same-sex marriage. The debate on whether or not to allow same-sex marriage creates controversy and sometimes-conflicting policies within states and the national government (Rauch, 2004).   For the longest time, the military has retained a policy of not allowing gays to serve in the military. The policy stated that those who are openly gay and pursue gay acts in public would be ineligible for military service and those that proclaim these beliefs while currently serving in the armed forces would be forced to resign their commission. However, it also protects those who are gay from being put under investigation regardless of evidence that is placed against them. This is again similar to the policy back before the Civil War where blacks were unable to serve in the Army. Like so, this was eventually repealed and in 2010, DADT was finally repealed allowing for the first time for soldiers to express themselves regardless of sexual orientation. This was supported by a majority of the Senate, however, a 60-day interim was filed to protect military readiness (Baim, 2010). President Obama supported this motion and activist Stefani Germanotta, aka Lady Gaga, also endorsed it ("Lady Gaga Gets," 2010).    The fight for civil rights did not end with the removal of segregation and equality for all races; it submerged into the realm of sexual orientation.  Read More