...the Bible, marriage is a sacred vow between a man and a woman. For centuries, the society has been clear on the element of marriage that it involves a male and a female. However, the attitudes and perception of people towards the traditional marriage have changed recently. The society started to accept the marriage between two persons of same gender and believe that they are entitled to be treated as the normal marriage. Since 2000, many countries have begun to allow marriage between same sex partners. There are now eleven countries which have legalize same sex marriage including Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Sweden and several sub-national jurisdictions of Brazil, Mexico and the United States. It can be seen that same sex marriage is no longer an unacceptable relationship in the current society. Home Secretary Theresa May and Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone said, “It's not right that a couple who love each other and want to formalize a commitment to each other should be denied the right to marry." The legalization of same sex marriage has become a hot topic in the county. The rising question is whether same sex marriages a threat to the institution of marriage or a benefit to the cultural change? This paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of same sex marriage and the comparison between different jurisdictions will be drawn. Marriage is a fundamental human right. The core of marriage is about love...
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...What is homosexual? What is homosexual marriage? Homosexual is defined as same-sex; meaning ‘sexually attracted only to people of the same-sex as oneself’ (Oxford Dictionary, 2000, p. 883). Homosexual marriage is between two same-sex partners’ also known as same-sex marriage. Homosexual marriage is illegal in some countries and states on a decade of a century ago. The government and the society’s point of view towards the marriage institution should only consist of a man and a woman. The trend of homosexual couples are increasingly gaining approved in other countries but they are still not been allowed to marry. However, in 2004, Massachusetts which is a part of the America is the first state that was allowed same-sex couples to marry (Vestal, 2009). Same-sex marriage was gradually permitted in some countries. According to the Confessore and Barbaro (2011), New York has the highest rate where gay and lesbian couples get married. Due to this, it is obvious that homosexual couples wish that their relationship can be accepted by the society. Nowadays, majority of the people have no problem towards the issue of homosexuality. According to a questionnaire result that was stated in the Beijing News, 100 percent out of 83 percent of the respondents born in 1980 years to 1990 years did not disagree of homosexuality (The Star, 2012, p. 39). The purpose of this paper is to point out that homosexual couples have their rights to marry as legalizing homosexual marriage can also bring a multitude...
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...Is homosexual marriage a right or privilege? Julie Camp PHI: 103 Informal Logic Instructor: Stephen Krogh September 24, 2013 Is Homosexual marriage a right or privilege? Informal logic is used to provide reasoning’s to assist in examining an argument. A conclusion needs well supporting evidence to provide productive and positive results. A political argument today is on homosexual marriage. My argument will be that the union of homosexual marriage does not have strong enough reasons to provide a productive and positive result because first, God created the institution of marriage, moreover going against the values and morals this country was built on, lastly same sex marriage will not produce a fruitful union. First, God created the institution of marriage between opposite sexes. A nation build on Christianity and under god, religious beliefs found to be just as important as the political one on equality. Traditionalist argue that marriage between a man and a woman should not be changed because of “prism of contemporary American society” (Campbell & Robinson, 2007, p. 131). This is the refracting of understanding of scripture. As Montgomery (2003) states in Kingston-Whig Standard “God is still the supreme ruler of this land, and neither the multicultural program of liberalism nor the strong homosexual political machine can change that, no matter how hard they try” ( para. 8) . Regarding the war on gay marriage the public opinion constitutes a “hard case” for the...
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...Table of Contents · Introduction · Homosexual Marriages Should Have the Same Rights as Heterosexual Marriages. · Comparisons to Other Countries · Europe · Africa · Background · First Argument with Gay Marriage · Changes in the Ability to Get Married · Hate Crimes · Identification of Policy Alternatives · Legalizing Gay Marriage Amongst All States · Legalizing Gay Marriage Amongst All States, but Naming it “Civil Unions” · Legalizing Gay Marriage/Civil Unions Against Some States, Recognizing it in All · Recommendation · References INTRODUCTION: Same Sex Marriages Having Same Rights as Heterosexual Marriages Gay marriage has been an active debate amongst politicians, religious figures, and the public. The debate has spanned over a decade with little change for either side. The issue of gay marriage is not just about the name of what the union is called, but the right to be able to legally join as homosexual couples with the same rights as heterosexual couples. Reasons for someone to be in favor of this topic are that there should be a separation of religion and politics, it deprives homosexuals of their natural rights, and this issue has escalated to violent hate crimes towards homosexuals. As it stands, currently 9 million adults are homosexuals, representing 4 percent of the 18 and over population in the United States with no signs of diminishing. Public administrators have done little...
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... Today, I would like to convince you that gay marriage, in other word, marriage of the same sex or homosexual marriage should be legalized worldwide. So, what is homosexual? I’m sure you heard of Elton John or Adam Lambert. Well, they are examples of homosexuals. According to the formal definition by Merriam–Webster, the term homosexual is defined as “of, relating to, or characterized by a tendency to direct sexual desire toward another of the same gender.” Putting it in another way, means that men will have sexual desire towards men, and women will have passion towards women. The most common term for homosexual is gay for men, and lesbian for women. The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, a sexual orientation law and public policy think tank, estimates that 9 million that is about 3.8% of Americans identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender (2011). They are many more around the world. Until now, there are only a few countries in the world that allows homosexual marriage like Netherlands and Belgium. Unfortunately, homosexuals are treated like a crime or an illness. Therefore, I’m here to convince you otherwise. Homosexual marriage is no different from heterosexual marriage. My first reason for supporting homosexual marriage is that homosexuality is not a mental or emotional disorder. I repeat, it is not a mental or emotional disorder which means that it is not a disease. Research suggests that the homosexual orientation is in...
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...The Gay Agenda: LGBT Leading Characters on Primetime TV I. Introduction In 1997 Ellen DeGeneres came out on national television. I was 14 years old, watching that historical moment in complete rapture. I remember thinking that the world had just changed forever; that my world had just changed forever. Unfortunately Ellen’s moment didn't last too long as her show was soon canceled, her career seemingly over. Fast forward 17 years and Ellen’s courageous moment seems so long ago, as we have progressed so much since then, that it can easily slip the mind. Ellen is back on top with a smash hit talk show, and a bevy of LGBT identified folks and television characters are right along with her at the top. Gay rights are the hot button “issue” of the current time. You could argue that it’s a the new civil rights movement, an abomination of “traditional family values”, or simply an elaborate horse and pony show to distract us from the real issues. Regardless of how you view it, the point is, you are still talking about it. As an LGBT identified person myself, and one who lives in a politically liberal bubble, I know that my perception of this movement is somewhat skewed. I have the privilege of living my life in the open and along the way exposing all kinds of folks to a new or unfamiliar way of life. However I often wonder what it is like to live in Middle America. What is it like to go to the grocery store, pick your kids up from school, or on a date and never see an LGBT identified...
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...tweaked and the standard image of a modern day family is no longer exactly how it looked 60 years ago. Twenty-first century culture has opened the door for many new views including the redefining of the typical structure of a family; in today’s world the model family is no longer just between a male and a female but also includes homosexual couples (Male/Male or Female/Female). Before complying with the definition of how the traditional family should be, we must be able to first define what a marriage truly is. Marriage as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “the intimate or close union of two individuals”, though the definition seems stable enough it isn’t the only definition of marriage and the idea of marriage itself is actually quite wide spread as we see in Evan Wolfson’s “What is Marriage?” Wolfson mentions in his article that marriage is sometimes for love but not always, it is the union of two people and the government received on a flimsy piece of paper and is also sometimes done in the vicinities of a courthouse or a religious building (Wolfson). In relation to Wolfson’s long rant about what marriage is, he brings up a point about gay marriage and how today culture is...
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...valid condemnation of loving homosexual unions, because they were written for a different culture. The argument goes that in the time that these passages were written, homosexuality was seen as removing a man’s masculinity and so it was condemned in Leviticus for ceremonial reasons. This means...
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...Deonte Washigton 04-7-13 English-099 Professor Reichard Views on Gay Marriage Homosexuality has been increasing for a long time; it really started getting popular in the early 2000s. Homosexuality has started to spread out like a new trend. Some of half of everybody you know seemed to try it or is currently doing it right now. So, the question is should gay marriage be legalized? I believe not just because it is not how our parents were taught and how we were taught about how marriage is supposed to me. Including also most people these days tend to date the same sex just because there previous relationships didn’t turn out right like how they wanted it to, either they were cheated on a lot and left with broken hearts or just they believed they was not attractive enough due to self-esteem issues. So, people tend to turn gay because of this, they believe that they will find a more faithful relationship and believe its love when there just trying to heal a broken heart they have. Also in this day of age our kids are continuously being exposed to many bad influences while growing up. So, why do we need to have our kids witnessing this? That it is okay to date and marry the same sex when in the bible it’s a sin. It says in Leviticus 18:22 that ‘You shall not lie with a male as with a women, it is and abomination.” It also says in verse 24 and 25 Leviticus that “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things for by all these the nations I am driving out before...
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...As presented in the book “A theology of Christian counseling: more than redemption” by Jay E. Adams, a Reformed Christian author, he says, “careful exegesis of these biblical portions [Gen. 2:18 with Prov. 2:17] shows that marriage is a covenant of companionship”6. This perfectly relates to the fact that the institution of marriage is about intimacy and a close relationship more than any other purpose beyond an emotional environment. The companionship position has strong counterarguments to debate the procreation position. Jay E. Adams clearly states its negativity towards the idea of getting married with the only purpose of having children. He explains that marriage was never designed with the sole purpose of sexual activity with the end of...
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...Barkley [1980]. Mr. and Mrs. Barkley married in 1962 and separated in 1977 after adopting three children. Mrs. Barkley was publicly known to be a homosexual. During this era, Mrs. Barkley’s sexual orientation notably affected her attempts at gaining sole custody of her adopted daughter, Lynn. This is demonstrated by the father’s testimony when he stated that he “greatly fear[ed] that if these children [were] raised by the mother, they [would] be too much in contact with people of abnormal tastes and proclivities” (Boyd, 2015, p. 259). Despite Lynn and Mrs. Barkley having a close and loving relationship, the concerns about her sexuality lead to a criticism of whether her having custody of Lynn would truly be in the child’s best interests (Boyd, 2015, p. 258). In the modern era and with the legalization of same-sex marriages with the passing of Bill C-38, this stigmatization is lessened as homosexual relationships are seen as less abnormal and immoral. As stated in Canadian Law: An Introduction (2011), “The same-sex marriage bill signals that, officially at least, that long, dark era of ostracism is over. Homosexuals are at last considered full and equal members of the human family” (Boyd, p. 229). This statement exemplifies the drastic change in public perception of homosexuals and their relationships from the 1960s to today. Bill C-38 states that same-sex...
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... Many studies show that the topics that cause conflict tend to be money, relatives, jobs, dividing household chores, social activities, how each person handles anger, alcohol use, moodiness and children if the couple has any. There's also topics that are unique to relationships that cause conflict. Some conflicts that can increase the odds of divorce in married couples are over sexual infidelity, jealousy, money, no communicating, drinking, and anger. Sexual infidelity is a very powerful topic when it comes to conflicts that can lead to divorce. Homosexual couples and heterosexual couples seem to have a few differences. For instance, homosexual couples are more likely to have conflict over previous lovers and distrust. The conflicts fall into 6 clusters which are social issues, personal flaws, power, distrust, personal distance and intimacy. It's been found that heterosexual couples argue over social issues more than homosexual couples. Lawrence Kurdek, who studied these areas of conflict, also found that in heterosexual couples the man's marital satisfaction sometimes affected how the woman resolve conflicts. More research done about conflict in couples has shown that there's an increase in levels of stress hormones that is greater in wives than it is in husbands. Wives also end to remember things more than men. This can also cause problems because the woman might remember more about past conflicts than men which means it might continue to be an issue later on in the relationship...
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...which a woman bears the child for the convenience of another woman. It is one of the progressive ways of alleviating infertility. However, Catholic Church is strong in saying that reproduction outside marriage is illicit, and therefore, immoral. Drug addiction is not immoral if the drug intake is meant for curing an illness. However, the immorality of drugs would surface if used outside their purpose. Suicide is to kill oneself. It is an immoral total cessation of a God-given life. Therefore, suicide is immoral. Murder is the art of killing of an innocent person. It is immoral since it violates the right of God over human life. Self-defense is not our duty to kill an aggressor; but we have the right to defend ourselves from any unjust and illegal attack of aggressor. It is justifiable since killing here is not a murder. Euthanasia or mercy killing is defined as the intentional killing of the life of the presumably hopeless person. It is inherently wrong because it violates the nature and dignity of human beings. Since life originates from God, therefore, He alone has a sovereign right over life. Birth Control deliberates prevention of pregnancy using any of several methods. It prevents an egg from being fertilized by a sperm and implanting in the uterus. Love-making in marriage should mean responsible parenthood. Abortion is an expulsion of an embryo or an enviable fetus from the body of a pregnant woman with the resulting death of the embryo of the fetus. Mutilation means any...
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...Gay Marriage In the article “The Worst Thing About Gay Marriage- It isn’t going to work”, the author provided four aspects of marriage that explained why he believed that gay marriage is wrong (SCHULMAN, 2009). The first is the most important: It is that marriage is concerned above all with female sexuality Second, kinship modifies marriage by imposing a set of rules that determines not only whom one may marry (someone from the right clan or family, of the right age, with proper abilities, wealth, or an adjoining vineyard), but, more important, whom one may not marry Third, marriage changes the nature of sexual relations between a man and a woman. Fourth, marriage defines the end of childhood, sets a boundary between generations within the same family and between families, and establishes the rules in any given society for crossing those boundaries. The arguments this author made did not have any logical reasoning behind it. Most of the reasons that he stated were old and antiquated based on how life was lived during times that we are no longer in. Even then I am sure only a handful of people thought this way. Specifically, he mentions that gay marriage is wrong because how it affects female sexuality. It states that females are not protected unless they are involved in a kinship that only family or heterosexual couples can enter into according to the author. According to the definition of kinship, it states “relationship...
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...Dr. Shouleh Vatanabadi Middle Eastern Cultures 11 December 2013 Marriage and Sexuality in Midaq Alley Naguib Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley, set in Cairo during the late years of World War II, was revolutionary and avant-garde not only structurally in the sense that it came to define a paradigm for the modern Arab novel, but also culturally given that it openly addresses issues of marriage and sexuality in Egyptian society. Through relationships between male and female characters, Mahfouz heavily criticizes traditional societal views on the role of women and homosexuality. The characters Salim Alwan and Kirsha are male archetypes whose violent dysfunctional relationships with their wives serve to criticize the greater societal issue of subjugation of women. Meanwhile, Hamida’s various engagements with Abbas, then Salim Alwan, then Ibrahim Faraj, reveal attitudes of extreme disrespect toward women and even unequal treatment for women before the law. Finally, though difficult to sympathize with, Kirsha nonetheless draws the reader’s pity as he is victimized by an anti-homosexual society that prevents him and his family from living fulfilled lives. Kirsha and Salim’s domineering treatment of their wives sheds light on the plight of married women in Egyptian society. Throughout the novel marriage is presented as an emotionless contract rather than a loving mutual relationship. The blunt causal structure of Kirsha’s reasoning in the statement, “I am a man. I am free.” implies...
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