Gay Marriage - Research Paper Example

? 9 April Gay marriage Gay marriage has been a of immense debate for the past few decades. In the contemporary age, many agencies are raising voice in favor of gay marriage in an attempt to get it legalized. In all ways including theatres, cinemas, commercials, media is projecting gay marriage as one of the acceptable features of the modern culture. On the other hand, religious scholars are also making enormous effort to condemn such proposals. “The heated rhetoric of the debate tends to be quite remarkable, with stinging words regularly slung from both sides” (Allen 953). Gay marriages should not be allowed and there should be no constitutional amendment to allow the gays and lesbians to obtain the legal marriage certificate. Gay marriage is an unnatural way of living. Had gay marriage been a natural way of living, gays would have been able to make babies from their relationship. Two people living together in a gay marriage contract cannot suffice each other’s emotional needs, even if they feel physically satisfied being together. Even if they happen to be satisfied both emotionally and physically, the connection may not last forever. Likewise, a woman needs the love of a man for concerns including and beyond physical satisfaction. A man is incomplete without a woman and vice versa. This can be estimated from the fact that no couple but the one comprising members of the opposite sex is able to produce children biologically. Gays are not able to produce children, so they can never experience what it feels like to be a parent. Although some gays tend to adopt a child, yet it has its own negative implications upon the adopted child as will be discussed later. Even if they do adopt children, they are never able to connect to them in a way they would have connected to their biological children owing to the fact that they know they are adopted and not their own children. “Popular stereotypes suggest either that lesbian and gay parents do not exist, or that children suffer irreparable harm if brought up in the households of lesbian or gay parents” (Patterson and Redding 29). From every aspect, life of a gay is unnatural. Gay marriage is an unreligious way of living. God has created everything for a purpose. Nothing has been made useless. Likewise, God has provided human beings with a system according to which they should live. Most of the religions, particularly the Abrahamic religions condemn the practice of homosexuality. Islam not only forbids gay marriage but also declares severe punishments for the people involving in this act. Religious scriptures provide accounts of God’s fury over the nations that have indulged in the practice of homosexuality in the past. Specifically, both Bible and Quran describe how the People of Lot (P.B.U.H.) were cursed and punished by God Almighty when they did not give up the practice of homosexuality despite repeated warnings made by the Prophet Lot (P.B.U.H.). “Scholars of shari’a, Islamic law, interpret homosexuality to be not merely a sin, but a crime as well” (Kligerman 54). We fundamentally derive our norms and values from religion. Had there been no religion, we would have had no guidelines to follow and there would be no means to judge whether a certain action was right or wrong. Since religion has prohibited us from indulging in the practice of homosexuality, there is no way we can justify the act. Legalization of gay marriage is essentially an offense of the religious teachings and violation of the religious principles. Gay marriage is supported in the name of modernity and people who oppose gay marriage because they practice religion are said to be conservative and narrow minded. A vast majority of people who speak in favor of gay marriages have started to talk about religious principles as man made. With that being said, our fundamental beliefs are being challenged along with our belief in God. “A part of the cost of the voluntary but “immoral” activity spills over onto “moral” people, who are annoyed by the way of life of “immoral” people… Then, the way of life or the acts of some people can be said to offend the majority” (Hatzis 58). This warrants a need to condemn gay marriages at every level. Gay marriage is an unethical way of living. Gays either adopt the children or have their own children from a previous straight relationship and then part ways with the spouse to raise the children under their new gay marriage. Either way, they deprive the child from the love of one or both of his/her biological parents. Every child needs a mother and a father, belonging to two different genders in order to gain a rational understanding of relationships. When two men raise a child, they deprive the child of the concept of a mother. Likewise, when two women raise a child, the child is deprived of the concept of the love of a father. A child needs both parents’ love to be complete as an individual. Children raised by gays or lesbians cannot be good parents as they have grown up under an unnatural parenthood that is far away from what the normative parenthood is. (Sutfin et al.) found that the development of children raised by gay parents was influenced by a lot of factors, particularly the attitudes about gender held by the parents in addition to the unconventional sexual orientation of the parents. “[P]arents’ gender role attitudes were significantly associated with children’s gender role attitudes, and this linkage was partially mediated by the gender stereotypicality of children’s physical environments” (Sutfin et al. 509). This suggests that children raised in the gay families are likely to develop a similar unconventional perception about gender roles as their parents exhibit. In addition to that, it is a fact without any doubt that no matter how hard gays may try, it is a non-normative sexual orientation and is something that would never be acceptable to a vast majority of the society. This makes it difficult for the children being raised by gays to hold their heads high in the air in the society. Children in the gay families are susceptible to be made fun of by their class-fellows and peers in the school. In their research, (Gartrell et al.) found children raised in the gay families to be subjected to anti-gay criticism by the peers. (Gartrell et al.) further found that anti-gay remarks from their peers given to the 10-year old children raised in the gay families made the children feel upset, sad and angry about such social encounters. One of the children interviewed by (Gartrell et al.) shared her experience in these words, “I remember…last year a girl told me my moms were going to hell. I probably turned away and told a teacher. It’s hard to remember [how I felt] – probably sad, definitely annoyed, not at the point of tears” (Gartrell et al. 522). Being the child of a gay is just as uneasy and uncomfortable to cope with socially as being gay is. Most importantly, the children raised by gays might be perfectly straight in their sexual orientation and totally undeserving of the criticism loaded on their shoulders by the society. These and many other factors make gay marriage unethical. Concluding, gay marriage should not be legalized. Gay marriage leads to an unnatural, unreligious and unethical lifestyle, which has many potentially negative implications both upon the children raised in the gay families and the society of which the gay couples form part of. Gay marriage provides the gay couple with a legal way to commit sin and expose the society to different kinds of sociological, psychological and health risks. Works Cited: Allen, Douglas W. “An economic assessment of same-sex marriage laws.” Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.” Vol. 29. No. 3. pp. 949–980. 2006. Gartrell, Nanette; Deck, Amalia; Rodas, Carla; Peyser, Heidi; & Banks, Amy. “The National Lesbian Family Study: 4. Interviews with the 10-year-old children.” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. Vol. 75. No. 4. pp. 518-524. 2005. Hatzis, Aristides. “The Negative Externalities of Immorality: The Case for Same-Sex Marriage.” Skepsis. Vol. 17. No. 1. 2006. Kligerman, Nicole. “Homosexuality in Islam: A Dif?cult Paradox.” Macalester Islam Journal. Vol. 2. No. 3. pp. 52-64. 2007. Patterson, Charlotte J. and Redding, Richard E. “Lesbian and gay families with children: Implications of social science research for policy.” Journal of Social Issues. Vol. 52. No. 3. pp. 29-50. 1996. Sutfin, Erin L.; Fulcher, Megan; Bowles, Ryan P.; and Patterson, Charlotte J. “How Lesbian and Heterosexual Parents Convey Attitudes about Gender to their Children: The Role of Gendered Environments.” Sex Roles. Vol. 58. pp. 501-513. 2007. Read More