Persuasive Essay

Imagine one day you were going to get married to a person you love, and you were told that you could not because it wasn’t legal. This is something that the homosexual community has to live with everyday. In many states, gay marriage is banned by a constitutional amendment, preventing all gays from getting married. The government takes away their rights and calls them “abominations”. Why would you treat another human as if they were a different species and deprive them of basic rights such as marriage. If we can help the people opposed to it to see that what they are saying makes no sense because they are just blindly following their religion, or show the states that laws that ban gay marriage that doing so is unconstitutional, then this problem can be solved. Many people don’t understand it, and some of the people opposed to gay marriage don’t either.

In the United States, same-sex marriage is only legal in five states. In July of 2010, Joseph Tauro, a federal judge in Boston, Massachusetts ruled that the federal ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional because it interfered an individual state’s right to define marriage. “The ruling gives same-sex married couples in Massachusetts the same right to federal benefits that heterosexual couples enjoy. U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro ruled that "as irrational prejudice plainly never constitutes a legitimate government interest," the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) violates the protection under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.” Vivienne Foley, a journalist for CNN, reported. (http://articles.cnn.com/) This is a sincere, prominent problem in the U.S. Not only does it take away homosexual’s basic rights as a person, but it also degrades them as people in society. A person’s sexual preference should no more define them as a person than the color of their skin. Be that as it may, people like homosexuals are prone to stereotype and judgment from society. They are looked down upon, due to a very conspicuous dogma in the majority of the society. Opposing gay marriage says more about who you are as a person, rather than the homosexuals themselves.

If we as Americans could just learn to put common sense and rationality behind our thoughts, rather than just citing phrases from the Bible and blindly following what we our told by others, we will find rights more equal and problems more easily solvable. The monotonous, stubborn group-think of Americans is unbearable to those who are fighting to become relevant in society such as gays. “Everybody's journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality.” James Baldwin, an American novelist, writer, playwright, poet, essayist and civil rights activist. If people choose to be gay, that is their decision and by no means what so ever anyone else’s. If you are going say “liberty and justice for all” you must accept the fact that those personal liberties and rights will be for all. You might say that the Bible says that homosexuality is wrong. What if you meet another person who is Agnostic or Atheist? You can’t force that person into believing what you believe in. “First and foremost, church and state are supposed to be completely separated when it comes to the rule of law in the United States. So the religious argument that God meant for only man and woman to be together has no bearing here!” Brendon Ayanbadejo, Baltimore Ravens linebacker, journalist for the Huffington Post. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/) That is what is wrong with these laws. Putting too much religion in our government will corrupt and bias the thinking and lawmaking, effectively making it useless and unbalanced. The laws while not at all rational are also unconstitutional.

Someone needs to prove to every state government that bans gay marriage, that doing so is unconstitutional. "The evidence shows conclusively that moral and religious views form the only basis for a belief that same-sex couples are different from opposite-sex couples," US District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker wrote on the California gay marriage ban being overturned. (http://articles.latimes.com/) The First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." A law banning gay marriage would only come to be because of religious purposes. People can say that according to their religion gay marriage is wrong, but that is their own personal or religion’s beliefs, and should not interfere with a state’s legislature. To say that keeping anyone from marrying who they want falls in line with constitution would just be wrong. While there aren’t many very different solutions to this problem, this one could certainly be managed.

In most states it is illegal for homosexuals to get married. We need to separate our religious thinking from our laws and government. Not only would this give everyone their basic rights, it would give our children a chance to make their own decisions and think for themselves. Whether you’re Christian or Atheist, gay or straight, I ask you to think for yourself and use common sense in your decisions. Not only then will we not be a monoculture, group-thinking hoard, but a free country of individuals who have their owns beliefs and the right to choose who they want to be.