Term Papers on Same-Sex Marriage

Term Paper Title	Same-Sex Marriage
# of Words	1125
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.5

Same-Sex Marriage

You Yu Yeh
4-16-99
English 1B
Professor Runyan
Essay#2

     ¨Marriage is a coming together for better or for worse, hopefully enduring, and intimate to the degree of being sacred.  It is an association that promotes a way of life, not causes; a harmony in living, not political faiths; a bilateral loyalty, not commercial or social projects〃, from U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Douglas 1965.  Should the definition of family include gay and lesbian partnerships?  A surprising decision of approving the homosexualˇs marriage by the Hawaii Supreme Court has awakens the issue of same-sex marriage.  Two-thirds of all Americans are reportedly opposed to the idea, but the discussion has just begun.  I will present same-sex marriageˇs the historical evidence, its discrimination, and the advantage for gay and lesbian.
     In many cultures and in many eras, the issue of same-sex marriage has emerged.  The early Egyptian and Mesopotamian societies that are considered important antecedents for Western culture apparently tolerated same-sex relationships in their culture, literature, and mythology.  Evidence shows that these societies recognized same-sex marriage is speculative.  Later, however, one finds more tangible evidence of same-sex marriage in classical Greece, imperial Rome, and medieval Europe.  According to The Case for Same-Sex Marriage (1996),  about Egyptian, some artifacts have same-sex couples in intimate poses, suggesting that Egyptian society at some points in its history was accepting of same-sex relationships, and the best documented are the same-sex marriages of Romeˇs emperors.  There is also strong evidence demonstrating the existence of same-sex unions, including legally recognized marriages, in Native American, African, and Asian cultures.  The unions serve important functions for the partners:  economic, professional, or social in nature. Throughout human history people have entered into same-sex unions because they loved one another and desired the intimacy that close companionship offers.  These are neither unprecedented nor unnatural.
     To say that same-sex marriage is a novelty is true from the point of view of a twentieth-century American but is false from the point of view of the ancient people.  The United State insistence on heterosexuality in marriage is a denial of formal equality for gay and lesbian citizens. According to Same-Sex Marriage (1997) that the defense of marriage act prohibits federal  recognition of same-sex marriage and allow individual states to refuse to recognize such marriages performed in other states.  It clearly violates the U.S. Constitutionˇs Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clause.  Forty years ago there were many state policies that explicitly discriminated against homosexuals.  Simply because of the sex of the person they loved.  They were excluded from government employment, dishonorably discharged from the armed forces, refused professional licenses, arrested and harassed by police.  Today, there is no government policy that explicitly and rigidly discriminates in this way except for the institution of marriage.  Once America recognizes the relationships and treats them like first-class citizens, then the gay middle class will assimilate and melt back into the great mainstream, as new insiders who have come in from the cold outside.  The reason for the most lesbians and gay men want something more than domestic partnership is, they want to be in a committed relationship at some point in their lifetime.  The poll conducted by The Advocate in 1994 found that ...

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