As of May 10, 2012, gay marriage has been legalized in the following eight states: Massachusetts (May 17, 2004), Connecticut (Nov. 23, 3008), Iowa (Apr. 24, 2009), Vermont (Sept. 1. 2009), New Hampshire (Jan. 1, 2010), New York (June 24, 2011), Washington (passed Feb. 14, 2012; effective Jan. 1, 2013) Maryland (passed Mar. 1, 2012; effective Jan. 1, 2013) and the District of Columbia (Mar 3, 2010). 31 states have constitutional amendments banning gay marriage.
Proponents argue that same-sex couples should have access to the same marriage benefits and public acknowledgment enjoyed by heterosexual couples and that prohibiting gay marriage is unconstitutional discrimination. Opponents argue that altering the traditional definition of marriage as between a man and a woman will further weaken a threatened institution. I have gathered together some pros to the question of if gay marriage should be legal:
1) Two people of the same sex who love each other should be allowed to publicly celebrate their commitment and receive the same benefits of marriage as opposite sex couples.
2) There is no such thing as traditional marriage prevalence of modern and ancient examples of family arrangements.
3) Gay marriage is protected by the Constitution's commitments to liberty and equality. The US Supreme Court declared in 1974's Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur that the "freedom of personal choice in matters of marriage and family life is one of the liberties protected by the Due Process Clause."
4) Denying same-sex couples the right to marry stigmatizes gay and lesbian families as inferior and sends that message that it is acceptable to discriminate against them.
5) Gay marriages can bring financial gain to state and local governments. Revenue from gay marriage comes from marriage licenses, higher income taxes and decreases in costs for state benefit programs.
6) Gay marriage will make it easier for same-sex couples to adopt children.
7) Marriage provides both physical and psychological health benefits and recent research suggests that refusing to allow same-sex couples to marry has resulted in harmful psychological effects. The American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association and others wrote in a Sep. 2007 amicus brief, "...allowing same-sex couples to marry would give them access to the social support that already facilitates and strengthens heterosexual marriages, with all of the psychological and physical health benefits associated with that support."
8) Allowing same-sex couples to marry will give them access to basic rights such as hospital visitation during an illness, taxation and inheritance rights, access to family health coverage, and protection in the event of the relationship ending.
9) Marriage in the US is a secular and dynamic institution that has gone under several major transformations. Interracial marriage was illegal in many US states until a 1967 Supreme Court decision.
10) Legalizing gay marriage will not harm heterosexual marriages or "family values." A study published on Apr 13, 2009 in Social Science Quarterly found that laws permitting same-sex marriage have no adverse effect on marriage, divorce, and abortion rates, or the percent of children born out of wedlock.
11) Massachusetts, which became the first state to legalize gay marriage in 2004, had the lowest divorce rate in the country in 2008. Its divorce rate declined 21% between 2003 and 2008. Alaska, the first state to alter its constitution to prohibit gay marriage in 1998, saw a 17.2% increase in its divorce rate. The seven states with the highest divorce rates between 2003 and 2008 all had constitutional prohibitions to gay marriage.
12) If marriage is about reproduction, then infertile couples would not be allowed to marry. Ability or desire to create offspring has never been a qualification for marriage. George Washington, often referred to as "the Father of Our Country," did not have children with his wife Martha Custis, and neither did four other married US presidents.
13) Same-sex marriage is a civil right. The 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia confirmed that marriage is 'one of the basic civil rights of man," and same-sex marriages should receive the same protections given to interracial marriages by that ruling.
