Same Sex Marriages

Same-Sex Marriages:

'I Do or Don't?'

        There are issues brewing all the time that catch somebody's eye at one time or another. Issues such as abortion, single-parent families, the homeless, AIDS, politics, euthanasia, and same- sex marriages. Same-sex marriages caught my eye as an issue of 1996 which people should be aware of. Not necessarily because of gay and lesbian rights, but because they are people too and why should they be permitted on how far they are able to take their relationships because of state and federal laws?

        The Hawaiian Supreme Court in 1993 ruled the prohibiting of same sex marriages because it is sexual discrimination and is a violation of the state constitution which also contains an equal rights amendment. This ruling was significant for gays and lesbians in the United States because it opened the eyes of close minded people in our country which is supposed to provide 'liberty and justice for all'. As written by Sullivan, gays and lesbians '... what we seek is not some special place in America but merely to be a full and equal part of America... or live as second class citizens' (26). In some states, they are changing their way of thinking, as in Minnesota. 'A Minnesota appeals court granted guardianship of a woman left quadriplegic in a car accident to her lesbian lover' (Quindlen, 580). In New York, a judge approved the adoption of a six-year old boy by his biological mother's lesbian partner. These three states are pointing in a positive direction and hopefully they will influence other states to do the same and accept same-sex relationships.

        Why is marriage so central in gay and lesbian hopes? Like every human on this earth, they meet a person they truly love, they 'want to commit to that person in...