Gay marriage benefits society

Dear Readers,

Students in the UCLA class helping out with the project were asked to express their own sentiments and/or find articles that dealt with the Prop 8 debate from a variety of angles. The articles chosen, thus represent a wide breadth of opinions, and by no means represent the viewpoint of the UCLA ArtGlobal Health Center. Please feel free to comment on any post that you find on this blog.Sincerely,Robert GordonTHATH Blog Editor

From: New Mexico Daily Lobo

by Mario Hernandez

Daily Lobo columnist

Society has always told us that love is all you need. It seems, however, that love isn't all you need. To be legally wed in the U.S., you need more than love - you need a man and a woman.

While still a minority, gays are more apparent and more abundant these days. Our society is becoming more understanding as time goes on, but understanding isn't the same as equality.

No one will resolve the moral debate surrounding homosexuality, but one thing is certain: People are people regardless of their sexual orientation, and to treat them as less than human beings is preposterous and outrageous. Also, gay marriage would benefit society by curbing the spread of disease and opening more loving homes to children in need.

The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of worship. This means the government has no right to tell people what is right and wrong in terms of religion, and therefore, it cannot and should not pass a law declaring marriage as being between only a man and a woman. Wouldn't that violate the First Amendment? Marriage is a religious institution and should remain in the hands of the churches. If a church is willing to marry gays, which some churches are, then the government should be willing to legally recognize it.

Gay marriage would make many positive contributions to society, like the decline of AIDS on a large scale. As Andrew Sullivan wrote in The New Republic, "(Gay marriage) would also, in the wake of AIDS, qualify as a genuine public health measure. Those conservatives who deplore promiscuity among some homosexuals should be among the first to support it." Logic would follow that if gay men are less promiscuous, then the spread of AIDS would naturally go down. This would benefit everyone, not just gays.

There are other benefits to society, as well. Gay marriage will lead to better households for children. Granted, gays cannot have children, but they can adopt. As a society, we would be heartless to say we want a child in an orphanage rather than in a home with loving parents. Studies also show that there is no conclusive evidence linking the sexual orientation of a child to the sexual orientation of his or her parents. That is a fallacy based on ignorance.

Detractors of gay marriage would have you believe that allowing gays to marry would undermine the value, tradition and sanctity of marriage. Nothing could be further from the truth. When we have celebrities like Britney Spears marrying at whim and divorcing 24 hours later, it's easy to see that marriage isn't all that sacred to this country in the first place. How can gays undermine the value of marriage when heterosexuals have already accomplished that?

Same-sex marriage is recognized by six countries. The Netherlands was the first country to do so, but that is no surprise, as it is one of the most liberal countries on the planet. Other countries include Belgium, Canada and Spain. More recently, South Africa has joined the group, and the state of Massachusetts threw its hat into the ring, as long as same-sex marriage is performed in that state and under its laws.

Many other countries have opted to go the civil union route. This means that it is not technically a marriage, but it is a legally recognized union in which the partners can receive benefits from the state. Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdom have done this. Many states in the U.S. - including California, Connecticut, Hawaii and New Jersey - have taken similar steps.

While things are slowly getting better, there are those who would love to see it get worse. Just as interracial couples attracted the scorn of those who thought people of different colors should not marry, so too does the love of two people of the same gender. But just as interracial marriages are now commonplace, hopefully gay marriage will be exactly the same in the future. Hopefully, we'll all look back on this and wonder what we were thinking being so prejudiced. Mario Hernandez is a UNM political science major.