I Do Or Please Don T Hawaii S Same Sex Marriages Essay

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"I Do" or "Please Don't": Hawaii's Same Sex Marriages



With the recent decision by the Hawaii courts regarding the legalization

of marriage between same-sex couples, a political debate across the United

States has begun. Many people believe that this is a monstrous step to

legalizing same-sex unions country wide, especially since legal tradition

recognizes marriages performed in other states as binding within every other

state, but also because Hawaii is known for it's liberal, ground-breaking first

steps that the other states often follow the model of. If the states have any

will, however, they will not fold to the pressure put on them by this state and

the gay rights groups, they will continue to not recognize a man and man or a

woman and woman as a man and wife.

What is marriage anyway? Isn't it the union of two people who love each

other to prove their commitments to one another for the future? Yes, but there

is more. Webster's Dictionary defines marriage as:

"a) the state of being joined together as husband and wife, b)

the state of joining a man to a woman as her husband or a woman to a man as

his wife." Legally, however, marriage is more than just a statement of love.

Marriage comes with economic and legal benefits that one cannot receive alone.

For example, joint parental custody, insurance and health benefits, the ability

to file joint tax returns, alimony and child support, and inheritance of

property and visitation of a partner or a child in the hospital. In fact, the

Hawaii Commission on Sexual Orientation itself concluded that denial of marriage

licenses to same-sex couples deprived applicants of these legal and economic

benefits. So, are homosexuals fighting for the right of marriage to state their

love as the gay rights groups suggest or are they pushing for the right of

marriage because of the many benefits that come with it? The answer is obvious –

they are fighting for the benefits that come along with marriage. If they were

fighting for love, then where would we stop these "feelings?" If homosexuals

were allowed to marry because they love each other and they consent, then

couldn't a pedophile marry a younger child as long as both parties fully

consented? If homosexuals were allowed to marry because they love each other,

then couldn't one man marry many wives because he loved each one and they each

loved him? If homosexuals were allowed to marry because they love each other,

then couldn't a son and his mother, or even a brother and a brother, marry

because they love each other? As one member of the Episcopal Laity Group said,

"a line must be drawn and it must never be crossed. Marriage is for a man and a

woman, and that's the way marriage will always be."

The gay rights' activists claim that this denial of love, in the form of

marriage, is a form of discrimination. These gay rights' activists claim that

this denial of love is similar to when slavery was being defended, women's

voting rights were being denied, or even more specifically and more related, the

anti-miscegenation laws of a few decades back. This is clearly an attempt at

tugging at the nation's heart chords by comparing the struggle for same-sex

unions to several notable, if not the most notable, equality struggles in the

history of the United States. The comparison to the defense of slavery or the

denial of women's voting rights by gay right's groups is simply unfounded.

Homosexuality has never been considered morally "good," and it is a tremendous

jump from saying that black-skinned people should work for white-skinned people

just because of skin color or women can't vote just because of sex to saying

that homosexuals can't marry just because of their sexual habits. There is a

clear distinction. First of all, Colin Powell once noted that skin color (and

gender in this case) and sexual behavior are completely different and

incomparable. Skin color and gender are born into, and they have absolutely no

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