The recent controversy about gay marriage and 24-hour-media coverage of it has created an uproar in the U.S. Some people who support this issue do so by expressing their concern for legal human rights, whereas others, who are against legalization of gay marriage base their argument on religious sources such as the Bible, in order to protect, according to them, the sanctity of the institution of marriage. Gay marriage also appeared on the agenda of the political parties in this country, when President Bush took an unusual step and announced that he would support a constitutional amendment to recognize "a marriage as an institution between a man and a woman."1 Thus, the issue of gay marriage is not only important for the gay community itself, but several other parties will be affected, if it were to be recognized legally. In this paper, I would like to assess some expert's opinion on different issues like definition of marriage, effect of gay-marriage legalization on family life, religious and legal views on legalization on gay marriage when they represents different belief or ideology. These issues are global and social, and not primarily lesbian or gay, though their analysis of the subject is from a gay/lesbian viewpoint.
Definition of Marriage:.
A gay marriage controversy has different aspects, different attitudes, different positions to it but for some experts, main focal point of the controversy is definition of the marriage itself. In the article "The Meaning of Marriage", the author Edward Vacek, the professor of theology informed his audience that marriage is traditionally defined as a man and woman living together to bear children.2 Similarly Margaret Steinfels, editor of Commonweal, cites that marriage is lifelong partnership, that "husband and wife are fulfilled in marital friendship" with the ultimate outcome of children.3 On the contrary, the editor of McLean's Anthony Wilson-Smith expressed a different definition in his editorial.
