Gay Marriage: The Arguments and the Motives
by Harry Wilkins
01/22/2010 — It’s time that the United States of America’s Supreme Court vote thumbs down when it comes to United States of America’s LGBT population for violating the 14th Amendment.
Section. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Fourteenth Amendment - Rights Guaranteed Privileges and Equal Protection under the Fourteenth Amendment... See More
•Marriage is a civil (as well as religious) institution; married couples benefit from more than 1000 benefits under federal law
•Supporters of same gender marriage argue that equal protection requires equal access to civil benefits of marriage
•Opponents of same gender marriage argue that there is a legitimate rational basis for limiting marriage to hetero couples
•Currently legal classifications based on ones orientation are subjected only to the rational basis test, not to strict scrutiny Immunities of Citizenship, Due Process and Equal Protection.
On the surface, the answer might seem simple (to advocates of same gender marriage, at least). Marriage is, after all, a civil as well as a religious institution. People enter marriage by obtaining a license from local authorities and—in about half of all marriages these days—they later end it by securing a divorce decree from a local civil court. In between, the United States Government
Accounting Office has identified more than a thousand federal benefits and responsibilities (such as homebuyer programs and educational assistance) affected by marital status. In other words, there are thousands of laws touching upon marriage and, consequently, the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the laws suggests—to some—that all people, regardless of their orientation, should be protected in their right to marry.
Let us accord one another respect for the intimate, meaning-giving relationship in our lives. Human beings "tend to come in pairs." We're intimacy-seeking beings. Coupling with another person for companionship and especially physical intimacy with one another (which is what the term "married" most implies) is part of our experience of creating our worlds. We literally create our lives by having somebody else to talk with about and share the experience with. (Of course, not all of us seem to need that kind of partnership. Lots of us are loners.)
"We cannot accept the view that Amendment 2's prohibition on specific legal protections does no more than deprive homosexuals of special rights. To the contrary, the amendment imposes a special disability on those persons alone. Homosexuals are forbidden the safeguards that others enjoy or may seek without constraint"
-Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority of the U.S. Supreme Court in the decision overturning Colorado's Amendment 2 referendum
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