Gay Marriages

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses whether or not homosexuals should be allowed to marry one another. For some in the gay community, demands for gay marriage may in fact be a form of challenge to the "straight" community, but those who are truly serious about the issue are attempting to secure for homosexual partners such rights taken for granted by heterosexual married couples as the right to inheritance, to insurance benefits, for one partner to visit the other in a hospital and so on. The paper shows that society has so far deemed marriage to mean more than this and to have at least the possibility of procreating children and this idea, sometimes but not necessarily touted as a demonstration of dedication to family or so-called "family values," is used as an argument to deny gays the right to marry one another. The paper argues that one does not have to subscribe to this vision of "family values" to oppose gay marriage, however, for there are a number of reasons why marriage should continue to be reserved for heterosexuals. If gays want to achieve certain rights, which indeed they should have, they can do so through some form of domestic partnership, which is already in place in many states and which can be expanded to serve the needs of all. This protects the institution of marriage while giving reasonable benefits to any domestic partner arrangement. The paper looks at the issue from a historical perspective and then offers a constitutional analysis to show how gay marriage has been presented in American law.

From the Paper:

"The cases discussed above in Hawaii, Vermont, Massachusetts, and other states constitute the current body of case law specifically on the issue of gay marriage. The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet had a case on the subject and so has not decided the issue. When such a case does reach the Court, proponents of gay marriage are likely to raise the issue in terms of the privacy rights cited above, while the opposing side is likely to emphasize the definition of marriage and the fact that numerous states today have laws on the books defining marriage as between a man and a woman only, with many such laws passed preemptively to avoid having to recognize gay marriages."

More papers on Gay Marriages:

• Analytical Essay # 68260 : "Gay Marriages in America"
• Analytical Essay # 68363 : "Gay Marriages "
• Argumentative Essay # 111131 : "Banning Gay Marriages"
• Analytical Essay # 23675 : "Gay Marriages"

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