As I stated on the first day of class, I am 100% and completely for gay marriage. I have grown up in a world where my mother is white and my father is Mexican. My uncle is Catholic and his wife, my aunt, is Jewish. Most importantly and relevant to this class, however, is the fact that I grew up with two women. Wendy and Karen were two of my mom’s best friends from college. They are two of the most welcoming and friendly people I have ever met. I grew up spending one week each summer in a beach house on the Jersey shore. Each time we went Wendy and Karen would meet up with us. I learned from a very young age that Wendy and Karen were girlfriends. Never in my life have I ever thought that the fact that two WOMEN I knew were girlfriends was wrong. I always grew up thinking that it was perfectly normal. That is where my stance on this issue really plays in. I guess you could say I have been pro-gay marriage since I was about the age of four.
This was always my stance on the subject; however, I never really looked in depth at all of the issues surrounding the matter of same-sex marriage. I know that Wendy and Karen are now married, so I was aware that a law had been passed at some point that allowed same-sex marriage/union/partnership to happen. I believe it was the first week of class that really opened my eyes up to how much this social movement has really been through. We had to write a timeline of the social movement we were following, and at this point is when I really saw that the fight for same-sex marriage is not even close to being over. However, there are a lot of key moments that have been monumental for the movement.
Massachusetts in the year of 2004 legalized same-sex marriage. This was a huge step from the smaller step that had occurred in Vermont in 2000. In 2000, Vermont allowed same-sex civil unions to be legalized, but they still were not called marriages. There is an article on cnn.com written by Deborah Feyerick and Sheila Steffen called “Same-sex Marriage in Massachusetts, 4 Years Later”. This article basically wanted to get the opinion from a male same-sex married couple about how the law change has affected them. In the state of Massachusetts since the date that it legalized same-sex marriage, more than 10,000 gay and lesbian couples have exchanged vows. Although yearly amount of gay marriages occurring has decreased, the legalization has changed the lives of many gay and lesbian couples.
Interviewed in the article were David Wilson and Rob Compton. They both agree that being able to call the other one “husband” and not “partner” is very empowering. Being legalized as husband and husband has also made Wilson and Compton eligible for certain benefits. An example that they brought up was the fact that they have hospital visitation rights. I myself had never even thought about the benefits that seem as simple and small as hospital visitation rights. Other benefits include health insurance through the other spouse’s work, the right to file joint state tax returns, transfer property, inherit shared assets, and make medical decisions for a spouse.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/16/feyerick.samesex.marriage/
Another area of interest for me was to see what our presidential candidates feelings were on the issue of gay marriage. From reading the article, “A Tightrope on Gay Marriage” by Matthew E. Berger on msnbc.msn.com, I saw that this is really a very heated issue between John McCaine and Barack Obama. It appears that John McCaine is saying one thing to conservative groups and another to the mainstream media. So there is that aspect of controversy surrounding John McCaine.
However, Barack Obama does not go without controversy on the subject as well. In the article, it says that Obama opposes “divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constition or those of other states. Also in the article, however, it states that he does support civil unions, but on a questionnaire he stated that he did not support gay marriages. So there is a bit of going back on his words and not really sticking to one specific stance on the issue. And the McCain camp has accused him of changing his position that he had originally declared.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/07/01/1178023.aspx
There is another article from cbsnews.com that addresses the same areas of concern surrounding Barack Obama and his stance on gay marriage. The article is “Does Obama Supports Gay Marriage?” by Rich Lowry. The article starts out by saying that Obama may be the first presidential candidate to support gay marriage. This article really brings to the eyes of the country that Barack is taking a different stance than any other candidate that has ever run for president. Even if Barack does not entirely support marriage for same-sex marriage as it is for male/female marriage; he still supports the acts of civil unions. I know this is not exactly what someone with beliefs similar to mine wants to hear, but at least it is a step in the direction in which I agree with. California citizens were trying to overthrow the new law that legalizes same-sex marriage, and California in the end overturned the attempt to ban the new law. When this happened Barack came out and said that he respects the decision of the California Supreme Court. Although this might upset some people due to the fact that it may come off in the wrong way. It may come off as if he respects that the will of the California people was disregarded, I do like the fact that he respects something that no other president has ever supported.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/23/opinion/main4124256.shtml?source=search_story
While I was looking up different articles I actually found a very interesting article. It put the issue of gay marriage in a light that I, myself, have never seen it put in before. I figured since I have been touching on the presidential candidate views on gay marriage, I decided to put this article in as well. The article is titled, “Study: Gay Marriage Good for Economy.” This was a study done by the UCLA School of Law. The study says that same-sex weddings could create hundreds of new jobs and could add millions of dollars into California’s economy. The way that the UCLA School of Law went about their study was by studying the economic impact of gay marriage in Massachusetts after it was legalized, and this is how they developed their predictions for California. The study is predicting that in the next three years gay weddings will generate $64 million in additional tax revenue, and another $9 million in marriage-license fees. I just thought that this was an interesting interpretation about a different kind of impact gay marriage will have on states. There is so much negative light shed on the subject, it was nice to see a more positive (even if it seems outlandish) light on gay marriage.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/09/national/main4167209.shtml?source=search_story
One last issue I wanted to look at was the scientific aspect that is surrounding the topic of homosexuality. I have never necessarily agreed with the concept of the “gay gene”, or that there is something in the body that is different in gay men and straight men. However, it is an interesting subject and can be persuasive. In the article “Brain Responses Differ in Gay, Straight Men” which was a study that showed that homosexuals react to male sex horomones like women. It states that a homosexual male’s mind responds more like a woman when reacting to a chemical derived from the male sex horomone. What they did in the study was take heterosexual men and women and homosexual men and expose them to chemicals derived from male and female sex horomones. When the candidates sniffed a chemical that comes from testosterone, portions of the brain that are involved in sexual activity were only activated when women and homosexual men sniffed the substance. Heterosexual men had no reaction to the substance. So even though I do not believe that “being gay” is a biological issue, this study does bring up a great point.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7791888/
In the end, everyone is entitled to what they believe. I just hope that everyone’s opinions about certain subjects are coming from individual opinions within themselves. I was raised Catholic. A religion that openly is against same-sex marriage. However, I still believe that there is nothing wrong with a man loving another man, or a woman loving another woman. Towards the end of this course we have really focused in on the media. I do believe that the way the media portrays homosexuals is not always correct. There is something people call the “flaming gay”. This is in reference to a man that acts extremely feminine. I feel that this is the image that the U.S. links to gay men. Also, that the image linked to gay women is a very “butch” look. I know many gay men, and none of them act the way the media portrays gay men. Throughout this course I have learned a lot about the issue of gay marriage. I hope to see many more states follow in the footsteps of Massachusetts and California, but I will just have to wait and see and keep my fingers crossed.
