Laws of Gay Marriage - Term Paper Example

 «Laws of Gay Marriage» In the past few decades, there has been a lot of debate regarding the practice of homosexuality and gay marriage. Governments around the world have faced the challenge of allowing or banning the gay marriage. A vast majority of the countries around the world have banned gay marriage, considering the negative implications it has on the society. The proponents of gay marriage have conventionally been losing the battle. There was a time in history during the 1990s when the ban on gay marriage was illegalized in the states of Alaska and Hawaii, but the trend was very short-lived. As the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was signed by the President Bill Clinton in 1996, the states lost the right to recognize gay marriages that were legalized in some states. DOMA defined marriage as a contract essentially between two people belonging to opposite genders and gay couples were denied the federal benefits. In the election of 2004, constitutional amendments were passed by 13 states that banned gay marriage. Laws are made after thorough consideration of the pros and cons of any matter. If gay marriages have not been legalized and have been condemned by the states in the history, there were always strong reasons for them, which suggests, that gay marriage should be condemned. This paper discusses the issue of gay marriage. Gay marriage is a threat to the health and safety of the society, and stability of the social system. Homosexuality has been practiced by the ancient Romans and Greek people. Although there is a lot of subjectivity about gay marriages in those cultures, as homosexual people have not been provided with as much freedom and liberty to get married until recently, yet literature review suggests that the practice of homosexuality has always been there. Even the term “homosexuality” was not used before 1869 (McKinnon 1). Ancient Romans and Greeks considered homosexuality a normal practice. Many Greek philosophers including Aristotle, Plato and Socrates had male sexual partners. “It was common practice for a male to take on a young boy as his lover until he reached maturity where he would, in turn, take on another young boy as his lover” (McKinnon 1). Similarly, there exist accounts of the Native Americans in the literature of the North Americans, who had adopted the “Berdache” lifestyle in which people of one gender used to dress as people of the opposite gender, and dated people from the same gender. The reason this practice did not become much stigmatized was that the couples were apparently heterosexuals. Homosexuality has been condemned by a lot of religions. A review of various religious scriptures suggests that homosexuality has been abhorred. Some religious scriptures have mentioned very strict punishments for people indulging in this act. Particularly, the Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Judaism as well as Islam have condemned the act of homosexuality. In Bible and Quran, there is a detailed discussion of a nation known as “the people of Lut” who were indulged in the practice of homosexuality. Prophet Lut (P.B.U.H.) warned the people not to do it, but the people would not listen. Quran describes homosexuality as a practice that crosses the limits of God Almighty. Quran quotes Prophet Lut (P.B.U.H.) in these words, “Do ye commit lewdness such as no people in creation (ever) committed before you? For ye practice your lusts on men in preference to women: ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds” (Qur'an 7:80-81 cited in “Islam and Homosexuality”). From the study of religious scriptures, it can be inferred that homosexuality was practiced by a nation centuries ago. Gay marriage is a threat to the peace and safety of the society in myriad of ways. One of the most fundamental ways in which gay marriage exposes the society to risks is the spread of such fatal diseases as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). There is a lot of literature that tells that the tendency of people to acquire AIDS is more in the gays than others. AIDS is particularly associated with the act of sodomy. Once acquired, even oral sex with the person infected with AIDS can cause the partner to acquire the disease. The rapid spread of AIDS in the past few years can be attributed to the increase in the number of gay marriages. “let’s tell homosexuals to stop sleeping with other men, stop using poppers, and stop shooting up. If they listen to that message, public health will improve, everybody will live longer, and taxpayers will be able to keep more of their money” (Fischer cited in Rosario). Many gays tend to adopt children after marriage. These people deprive the adopted children of the love of a mother. A mother for a child is as important as a father. Two fathers and no mother can never address the concerns of a child. Having two mothers but no father is just as unfulfilling for a child. Nature has made a system for everything. Nature disallows the practice of raising a child in a gay marriage setup. This can be estimated from the fact that gays cannot produce children. The only way for people to have children biologically is by getting married to the opposite sex. As they say, the mother’s lap is the first institution for a child. From this, it can be inferred that gay marriage violates the principles of nature. As a result, both gays and the adopted children are likely to experience a lot of troubles in life. Gay marriages are a threat to the sustenance of the social system. Heterosexual marriage is one of the most fundamental institutions that promotes the social system and lends it stability. It is possible through nothing but heterosexual marriages to produce children. There are two basic reasons pertinent to the sustenance of the social system that condemn the practice of gay marriage. Firstly, the population of women has rapidly increased in the past few decades in most of the countries of the world as compared to the population of men, and the trend continues to the present day. In the present age, even the equation of one man marrying one woman does not create balance in the society. In order for all people to enter into marriage at least once, it has become imperative that one man marries more than one woman. Every gay marriage deprives the society of not one, but two men, thus causing a two-fold damage to the social system. Increase in the number of gay marriages is also one of the most fundamental causes of decline in population. More and more countries have started to experience negative birth rate. Secondly, the decline of population is causing a lot of problems to emerge in these countries. Countries that are presently facing this problem include Japan and Germany. Decline of population causes an equivalent shortage of skilled workforce. There are jobs but not enough candidates to avail them. As a result of this, companies are left with no option but to recruit workers with lesser than required competency and skills. This is problematic for the employers in two ways. Firstly, owing to the shortage of skilled workforce, candidates demand a higher salary than they are traditionally offered for the same job and complexity of work in a country with sufficient population. Secondly, these workers are not able to produce work of the quality required by the employers. Hence, gay marriages are creating imbalance in the society along with a negative birth rate. Ban on gay marriage has been criticized by the proponents of gay marriage. They say that the ban on gay marriage deprives them of their civil rights. Argument conventionally raised in support of gay marriage is that it provides individuals to live the way they want. It is said that all human beings are not naturally heterosexual. There are few people who find sexual attraction towards people of the same gender, and it is beyond their control. It is said that one does not choose to be a gay, one is naturally a gay. It is described as pros of gay marriage that it allows people to explore their sexual fantasies as they feel like. Gay people say that they pay taxes just like other people, and yet they are denied the right to get married. While there is no doubt in the fact that some people do feel sexual attraction towards people of the same gender, but this does not in any way justify them being married to people of the same gender. No human being assumes the power to decide as rightly as God does. If God has made somebody man or woman, it means that it is in the best interest of that individual to be that. Similarly, if some people feel sexual attraction towards people of the same gender, they are not allowed to enter into gay marriages on the religious grounds. Last but not the least, it is no injustice to deprive people of the right of gay marriage if gay marriages have been scientifically proven to be a root-cause of the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Allowing gay marriage would give gays their civil rights, but on the cost of their own lives as well as the lives of others whom they ever make sexual connection with. It is better to deprive some people of their civil rights than depriving many others of the right to live safe and healthy. Concluding, gay marriage is a threat both to the couple engaging in this practice as well as the society they form part of. There are a lot of reasons for the ban on gay marriage to have a universal appeal. Gay marriage increases people’s susceptibility to fatal diseases. Children raised by gays are denied the right to have the love of a biological parent. Every child needs a mother and a father to be complete socially, morally and psychologically. People learn the art and norms of parenthood from their parents. Children raised by gays grow up without understanding the importance and love of a parent that is missing from the family. Accordingly, boys raised by a lesbian couple cannot be good fathers. Similarly, girls raised by a gay couple cannot be good mothers. Gay marriage is one of the causes of decline in population and increase of the negative birth rate, thus contributing to a shortage of the skilled workforce in the country. In addition to that, men entering into gay marriages are leaving many women unmarried. Unmarried women are exposed to a lot of risks causing distress and tension in them, and their life is full of stress. Most importantly, it is advisable for the governments to ban the gay marriage because it is condemned by the religion. Religion is the fundamental source of ethics and norms that we follow in the daily life. Doing something that has been forbidden by religion cannot be correct anyway. The only pro of gay marriage is it provides gays with a means to fulfill their sexual fantasies, which in turn yields all the negative consequences as discussed. In light of the points discussed in this paper, it can be said that it is in the best interest of a country to ban gay marriage. Works Cited: “Islam and Homosexuality.” n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2012. . McKinnon, Ava. “The pros and cons of gay marriage.” 20 Oct. 2011. Web. 2 Apr. 2012. . Rosario, Justin. “Bryan Fischer: HIV Doesn’t Cause AIDS; Gays Having Sex And Using Drugs To Blame.” 9 Jan. 2012. Web. 2 Apr. 2012. . Read More