Barack Obama and Gay Marriage

Thesis sentenceI was raised in a Christian home like most American people, where we were taught by the church that being homosexual is a sin. I grew up believing this for most of my life until I met a dear friend who would change my views on the subject matter. I watched this person be humiliated and discriminated against because of her sexual orientation. This made me wonder how one sin would be worse than another. I know I have sinned in my life time but was hers bigger than things we have all done at one time or another? Did her being gay give people the right to treat her badly and ostracize her? This woman married a man to please her family but she was absolutely miserable.

How can one live like this? Being married to someone you do not love just to make others happy. She sacrificed and lived a lie for years until she could not hide it any longer.

She had to set herself free and live for her and no one else. Although, it is hard for me to comprehend how someone could be remotely attracted to the same sex I understand that some things are just not in your hands. She once told me that if she could just be straight she would because of all the obstacles she had to endure being gay. After her failed marriage she found love. I was with them the day that it was announced that Barack Obama made gay marriage legal. They are over the moon and I was happy for my friends, and for this reason I support their cause.Barack Obama BiographyThe 44thpresident of the United States,Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. was born in the fall, on August 4, 1961 in sunny Honolulu, Hawaii. His father, with the same name was born in Kenya and his mother Ann Dunham was born in Wichita, Kansas. His parents met each other while they were both young college students in The University of Hawaii. At the tender age of 2 years old his parents separated and went their separate ways. He did not grow up living or knowing his father. He just saw pictures and relived memories of him through his family telling him stories. His mother remarried and his family moved to Indonesia in 1967.

From the time he was 6 to 10 years old Obama attended school in Jakarta. He returned to Hawaii to stay with his beloved grandmother until he graduated high school in 1979. In 1983, he met one of his goals, he completed his bachelor's degree in political science from Columbia University in New York City. Upongraduating college, he spent some time working at Business International Corporation and New York Public Interest Group. That is where he worked prior to relocating to Chicago to take a job as a community organizer. He enrolled and attended the very prestigious Harvard Law school in 1988. According to biography.com:Obama's advocacy work led him to run for a seat in the Illinois State Senate. He ran as a Democrat and won election in 1996. During his years as a state senator, Obama worked with both Democrats and Republicans to draft legislation on ethics, as well as expand health care services and early childhood education programs for the poor.(A&E Television Networks2018)Obama decided to take a chance and run for senate in the year 2004.

In February 2007 he made huge news by announcing his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. On November 4, 2008 he won the precedency against John McCain. He then became the 44thpresident of the United States. The first black president our nation has ever had.Made LegalIn the summer of 2015 the Obama administration made headline news for marriage equality. On June 26, 2015 the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage legal thought the United States. According to biography.com:President Obama, who became the first president to voice support for same-sex marriage in May 2012, praised the court for affirming "that the Constitution guarantees marriage equality. In doing so, they've reaffirmed that all Americans are entitled to the equal protection of the law. That all people should be treated equally, regardless of who they are or who they love. (A&E Television Networks2018):This hot debate among Americans ensued that summer. People were arguing whether they supported gay marriage or not. When the ruling came down it created a major problem for a lot of people that viewed same-sex marriage as an abomination and could even conceive of it in their minds. Yet, it was real and it was happening. Now a day more and more people are becoming comfortable in their sexuality and deciding not to hide it any longer.

According to statista.com:Approximately one in 100 American women and two in 100 American menidentify as homosexual, with another four percent of Americans identifying as bisexual. Homosexuality is still a controversial topic in the United States, but polls and surveys regarding itsmoral acceptabilityor thelegalization of same-sex marriageshow an obvious trend towards acceptance and tolerance of the LGBT community among the American population.(Laporte, 2008)One main problem people have about gay marriage is their religious views. In the past American's religious believes had a much more powerful presence among people than it does today. The main reason people are opposed to same-sex union is because it is against their religion. Looking at the fact that religion is not as impactful as it once was it makes sense that a high number of Americans are becoming a lot more accepting every day. The result of this could be why older people that were once worried by their religion weighing them down with guilt are more willing to come out.

The younger generation in the U.S. are no longer terrified to be cast aside by everyone as they would have been years back. Gays and lesbians now feel the free to live openly for the most part. Although, they can always be the chance that they will still experience some discrimination at times. In spite of the controversy surrounding homosexual marriage and my own personal believes, I do feel that this something we cannot overlook as it will never change. We must see past what we believe with an open mind and try and look at the positives of it.PositivesIt seems that the individuals that are for the idea of legalized same-sex marriage argue more towards seeing the benefits for gay and lesbian couples. The way they see it is that there will be more benefits, mostly from the government aspect. These can be things like, social security and others they were not able to obtain until they got marriage benefits. Another huge benefit is status of citizenship in America. Even though there are other ways to obtain citizenship in the United States, marriage was not an option for gays and lesbians since they could not be legally married until recently. Now it is considered a huge way for gay and lesbians to gain citizenship if they marry a person born in a different country. One major benefit is that more people will be willing to enlist in the military without fear of retribution. Before you could not be openly gay and serve in the United States military.

The policy for this, as you might have heard before was called Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT). This provided protection for gays that were in the closet while they served. Troops could not be openly gay or have the right to ask anyone directly if they were gay. To serve you had to keep your sexuality private. It was believed that by keeping their sexual orientation a secret it would avoid risking good order, discipline and a high standard or morale. I served during the DADT era and I remember two good Airmen I served with being kicked out because of their sexual preference. They were good people and workers and to see them go and on top of that, get in trouble for it was very sad. A lot of people in my squadron were upset to see this happening but at that time it was the military law and if you wanted to serve you had to obey. In 2011 the Obama administration repealed the Don't Ask Don't Tell law and allowed individuals to serve and be openly gay. This was a hard pill to swallow for a lot of service members as the decision made them uncomfortable. The other side to the coin is that getting rid of DADT helped the military in the recruiting sense, retention percentage and in the family readiness aspect.Same Sex Couples Can Help Orphaned ChildrenToday, there are over seven billion people and counting in the world. In the United States alone, there are 325.7 million people.

According to childrensrights.org "On any given day, there are nearly 428,000children in foster care in the United States." (Children's Rights 2018)More than 400,000 of those people are children living in out-of-home care. Without gay couples to adopt these children, orphanages would be overflowing. The majority of heterosexual couples will not adopt children over the age of three and are more likely to adopt children without any kind of disability, mental or physical.Thus, leaving a lot of children in foster homes. One might think that having gay parents might have a very negative affect on a child but this might not be the case. A child might rather have two solid, loving parents in oppose to living in and out of foster homes. Living in a foster home, or an orphanage is more likely to tamper with a child psychologically, rather than having gay parents. According to childrensrights.org:None of the outcome measures showed any difference between families headed by gay versus straight parents. Children's behavior problems were no different between these groups, whether behavior was rated by parents or teachers. Parental stress and family functioning were no different between these groups.(Children's Rights 2018)According to those studies there is no huge, significant difference between children being raised by a gay couple or a straight couple. Yes, I am sure there might be some bulling involved from other kids but now that it is more common place it might subside.The NegativesGay parenting is not the only aspect of gay marriage that is heavily debated and frowned upon.

Although there is more acceptance towards gays, let's be realistic, there is still people who hate and fear them. Discrimination towards gay people can be compared to the discrimination there was towards ethnic people in the past. White people did not like ethnic people because they thought they were different from them. Ethnic being black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian and the list goes on. They believed white was the supreme race and someone who different from them was not going to be equal or have as much power. The thought of that was unacceptable. This is similar to gay marriage today. Some heterosexual people are afraid of homosexual people because they are different from them. Even though they differ from us straight people they have as much rights too. Let's remember that when the Civil Rights act of 1964 was put into effect, over the time there was less and less discrimination against color, or race. The Civil Rights Act does not only prohibit discrimination against color. The Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination against color, race, religion, sex, or national origin.Other countries in other continents have already agreed that same sex marriage is a modernized part of life that needs to be taken and put into action. The United States is lagging behind because a lot of people are not adapting their views and opinions to modern times. The American people are proving to be very one-sided or close-minded about this topic whereas other countries throughout the world have become more adept in the understanding of homosexuality and gay marriage.

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