A Movement for Gay Rights - Research Paper Example

To discuss same-sex marriage, it is important to go back to the issues of gay rights because this was the basis of same-sex marriage (Cabaj and Purcell) and the beginning of the world. Cabaj suggests that the biggest challenge for total acceptance of same-sex marriage is homophobia. This happens because people are afraid of change. However, there is a recorded history of same-sex love throughout history. Same-sex marriage may appear to many that this is just something that began within the last several years; historically, same-sex marriage dates back to ancient times.

Cabaj states that homosexual behaviour goes as far back as Greece, where the love between two men was very much of Greek society. Many of these relationships had ceremonies and comprised older men and adolescents; both parts of this relationship were seen as equal in Greek society. Generally, the two men stayed in a relationship until the adolescent became older, and at that time, he may choose to marry a man or a woman. There was not the stigma of homosexuality at that time. In Roman times, couples would be married and recognized in their societies (“The History”).

Many people during this time would marry slaves, and this was done without discrimination or repercussions. The Romans sanctioned marriage between men in the first century, and there is evidence that Emperor Nero married a man in a large, public ceremony (Cabaj 3). As the Roman Empire began to crumble and the Catholic church had more influence, homosexuality was not tolerated and accepted by the fourth century (Cabaj 3). Still, as in any civilization, same-sex couples continued to have unions and ceremonies as couples throughout the East and what was considered the Orthodox West until about the fourteenth century.

In more contemporary times, women would dress as men in the 1800s, and early Denmark was the first country to recognize same-sex marriages in 1989 (“The History”). Countries worldwide were faster to allow same-sex marriage before the United States began to look at it seriously. In Norway and Sweden, same-sex marriages have the same rights as heterosexual marriages (“The History”).