As Sullivan states, "In 1985 a Newsweek poll found that only 22 percent of Americans had a friend or acquaintance whom they knew to be homosexual. Today the statistic is 56 percent" ( xxi-xxiii). These numbers cannot be ignored, gays are part of our country and deserve to have equal rights. Sullivan explains:.
In 1996, according to a Newsweek poll, some 84 percent of Americans favored protecting homosexuals from discrimination in employment, and 80 percent supported such protection in housing[.] A large majority supports inheritance rights for gay spouses- 61 to 29 percent- and a narrow majority even supports social security benefits for gay spouses- 48 to 43 percent. ( xxi-xxiii).
Perhaps American heterosexuals do not want to admit that homosexual relationships deserve the same amount of respect and acknowledgment. Some Americans are not ready to get over their old fashioned ideas and realize that gay couples share the same amount of love together as straight couples do. Why would our government discriminate against one group of people being able to marry and not another group? Was it not too far ago that interracial marriage was unheard of, until people showed the government that banning it was wrong. Still today many Americans do not agree with interracial marriage, but whether they agree or not does not matter. The question is whether a policy is right or not, is it right to discriminate against gays who wish to marry because some people do not agree? .
Marriage is often looked at from a religious viewpoint, instead of what it really is. Marriage is a licence that our government gives to a couple when they decide to make a commitment to one another. Religion is not a part of our laws, so it should stay out of the legal process. As eskimo.com explains, "this is not really a religious issue. Legal marriage is a matter of civil law, a contract that invokes legal obligations and benefits for a couple.
