The Issue of Same-Sex Marriage or Gay Marriage

The first-ever legalization of same-sex marriage or gay marriage was in Hawaii, in 1933. At the time, the state court’s decision was publicly discriminated against a same-sex couple from marrying each other and it was considered as gender discrimination many years later. In the article of “State-Level Marriage Equality and the Health of Same-sex Couples”, Kail, Acosta, and Wright stated that “the U.S Congress followed with the Defenses of Marriage Act (DOMA) of 1996”, this act by the Congress allows to ignore same-sex marriage in many states within United State and define a marriage as a legal union between a man and a woman (2015); However, this issue of same-sex marriage has gained attention widely, from over 40 states, and will continue to gain more attention from the public as the time went on.

Before the decision that led to the legalization of same-sex marriage by the U.S Supreme Court on 26th of June 2015, and has been protected by the U.S constitution in all 50 states since then, there were only 37 states, included Washington D.C, that accept gay marriage, while it remained illegal for the rest of the country. Even though nowadays, same-sex marriage is already legal in every state of America, there are still many people believe that it should stay illegal rather than legalize it. In the article of “A Contentious Debate: Same-Sex Marriage in the U.S.” by David Masci, he wrote that, for those who support the legalization of gay marriage “contend that gay and lesbian couples should be treated no differently than their heterosexual counterparts and that they should be able to marry like anyone else” (2009).

In 2016, presidential candidate of United State, Bernie Sander, who himself is also a supporter of same-sex marriage legalization said that people have the right to love each other with no gender differentiation. Also, as Jason Enns claimed in “On the Issues: Same-sex Marriage”, “if people are in love, they should be able to get married in this country in 50 states in America” (2016). Meanwhile, on the other side of the problem, one is our current president of America, Donald Trump, and one is president senator, Ted Cruz, was adamantly opposed the same-sex marriage in all states of the country. During time Donald Trump was running for president, his claim was made nearly at the beginning of his campaign, which is the claim he said that “Some people have hopes of passing amendments, but it’s not going to happen. Congress can’t pass simple things, let alone that. So, anybody that’s making that an issue is doing it for political reasons. The Supreme Court ruled on it.” Other than Donald Trump, president senator, Ted Cruz, was also opposed to the legalization of same-sex marriage by the Supreme Court. They believe in traditional marriage, which is defined as a union of a man and a woman and is primarily for procreation. They think that same-sex marriage goes against nature and everything against nature is bad, so they opposed it. Ever since the legalization of same-sex marriage, it has become more common across the United State. According to the Gallup news and USA Today, there are more and more people who support same-sex marriage.

The number of supporters has significantly increased, as it was only 27% of U.S population in 1996, the percentage has risen up to 60% in 2015, and it has come up to 67% in 2018, which holds about two third of the U.S population. Over the years, in the United State, there is more same-sex marriage happened than it was in the past, and the number of this type of marriage has rapidly increased in the last couple of years, especially after the legalization. As they estimated there were only 13,500 married couple of the same gender in 2004, and in 2013, this number increased significantly to about 230,000 couples, and just 2 years later, they estimated that there are around 486,000 gay marriage couple in the United State. By looking into these statistics, a question was asked whether or not same-sex marriage is safe to society. In other words, does it human any negative effect on our community? In the article of “The Dollar and Cents of Gay Marriage”, Francis argues that long the long term, same-sex marriage will lead to fewer marriage of opposite gender couple, increase out-of-wedlock births, and increase the rate of divorce. Because of these problems, it can cause our society to lose balance not only on gender identity, but also on the population as well. Thus, many people still don’t accept the existence of same-sex marriage in our society. Also, many people still not accept in same-sex marriage is because they believe that “gay men and women are more sexually promiscuous than heterosexuals”, they “strongly believe in traditional gender role”, and they “view their marital vows as sacred” (Wolpert, 2016).

Because of the different perspective that each person has, the debate on this topic is still ongoing in today’s society. Even though, nowadays, all 50 states in America have already legalize same-sex marriage, there are still people who support and oppose it. Both sides of this debate have their own reasons to hold on to their believe, and this debate on same-sex marriage will only come to an end if same-sex couples can show that they have no harm on the society. the opposing side reasons for not legalizing are not good for raising a child, it goes against the word of God in many religions, and this marriage cannot be for procreation, while for those who favor same-sex marriage said that it the same-sex couple raise children, impact positively to the economy, and can lower the divorce rate First of all, for the supporting side, one of the reasons for favoring same-sex marriage is because they raise child ren. Even though same-sex couple cannot have children on their own, they are still able to adopt kids from the orphanage. As we all know that, in the world, there are many children were born without a mom or a dad, they were abandoned ever since they were young. Most of them spend their child hood with other kids in the orphanage. So, even though gay parents are not be able to have a child on their own, it is still good for the child to be risen up by parents, rather than being in the orphanage. According to an article “Same-sex couples and their children: what does the evidence tell us?” by Jennifer Power, it shows that there is “no differences in well-being between children raised by same-sex couples and those raised by heterosexual couples” (2016). And according to Ellen Perrin, who is the professor of pediatrics at Tufts University, wrote in the article “Raising Good Children”, she said that, “The vast consensus of all the studies shows that children of same-sex parents do as well as children whose parents are heterosexual in every way” (2005).

From the data provided by Lifelong Adoption organization, the number of same-sex couples who have adopted children in 2010 was 22,000 couples, and it is three times more than it was in 2000, which is only about 6,500 couples. As Lindsey Bever said in “Children of Same-Sex Couples Are Happier and Healthier than Peers”, “A June 2014 peer-reviewed University of Melbourne study showed that children raised by same-sex parents score about six percent higher than the general population on measures of general health and family cohesion” (2014). Also, another study was published in 2010 by Pediatrics, found that children of lesbian mothers were rated higher than children of heterosexual parents in social and academic competence and had fewer social problems (Nanette, 2010). And finally, a former of Washington Post columnist, Ezra Klein, said that “We should be begging gay couples to adopt children. We should see this as a great boon that gay marriage could bring to kids who need nothing more than two loving parents” (2013). Moving on to the second reason for why same-sex marriage should be accepted, people said that it was because it affect positively on our economy. With legalizing the same-sex marriage, there will be more wedding taken place in the country, and this will create more jobs opportunities for many unemployment people, which, on one hand, can decrease the unemployment rate, and, on the other hand, can bring millions of dollars to the economy.

According to the research in 2012 by the Williams Institute at University of California, same-sex couples are projected to spend $684 million on flowers, cakes, hotels, photographers and other services over the next three years, and for the first five years after the legalization in 2004, same-sex wedding brought to the state’s economy roughly around 111 million dollars (Dickler, 2012). In July 2012, the New York city Mayor, Michael Bloomberg made an announcement that gay marriage had contributed 259 million dollars to the city economy alone ever since they legalize it in July of 2011 (Ellis, 2012). Doesn’t stop there, a series of report in 2012 also by the Williams Institute estimated that legalizing same-sex marriage would boost the economies of the 11 US states studied by a total of $723 million over three years (Chokshi, 2014).

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