Gay Marriages:Should It Be Accepted?
Gay Marriages
Should It Be Accepted?
According to remarks by the President, “Eight years ago, congress passed, and President Clinton signed, the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage for purpose of federal law as the legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife. The act passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 342 to 67, and the Senate by a vote of 85 to 14. Those congressional votes and the passage of similar defensive marriage laws in 38 states express an overwhelming consensus in our country for protecting the institution of marriage.”(“President Calls for Constitutional Amendment Protecting Marriage”)
Most people response to the question, “Should gays and lesbians be allowed to marry in the same way that straight couples do?” is vertical and automatic. If you believe God created the universe some six-thousand years ago, and laid down His absolute moral laws in the pages of the Holy Bible, then your parties are probably pretty boring, and you regard marriage by definition as a sacred union between a man and a woman for the purpose of procreation. If, on the other hand, you believe the universe is billions of years old, that human beings have an extremely intimate genetic relationship with chimpanzees, and that moral laws are constructed socially rather than supernatural, you probably smoked dope in college and you don’t much care what marriage is or who does it.
In fact there are a lot of people who really aren’t much interested. This issue is, however, a significant and interesting one, since it forms part of the continuing evolution of mainstream values in society. A lot has changed. Same-sex marriage is not legal in the United States, but it is valid and recognized in California. However, it is closer to becoming a reality than ever before. Various cities and states have enacted “domestic partner” laws, which, while not conferring the official status...
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