What Is All The Fuss About? .
The issue of gay marriage is very confusing to a lot of individuals. No state, as a whole, currently recognizes gay marriages, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has said denying marriage licenses to gay couples is unconstitutional. The Massachusetts legislature is considering a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriages, but the earliest it could go into effect would be November 2006. That means Massachusetts will, in all likelihood, become the first state as a whole to issue gay marriage licenses, on May 17. .
In 1999, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that gay couples were entitled to the same benefits of marriage. But the court let the legislature create a "civil unions" law. Vermont is the only state with that new legal relationship; it offers many benefits of marriage, such as medical coverage, inheritance, and property rights. California will have a domestic-partnership registry next year offering some of the same rights of marriage. A few other states have recognized limited benefits for gay couples but not many. .
Still yet, gay activists argue that even Vermont's civil unions are unequal. Those couples receive only state protections, but not the more than 1,000 other rights of marriage under federal law, such as joint federal income tax benefits and federal family leave. Activist agree that marriage supports stability and gives hope for a relationship's future. They also feel that it would help fill the gap of acceptance in American society today. More so, they don't want to be discriminated against because of their gender. A man can marry a women, but a man born male cannot marry another man because of his gender. Therefore, that is discrimination against gender. .
I personally tend to agree with homosexuals as they lay out a more valid reason for same-sex marriage. Their opposing force's argument against it, tends to be weak and not quite clear or centralized around religious beliefs.
