Alabastair
1st Sep 2008, 08:51 PM
I wrote this paper in 2006 about gay marriage (as a 'straight' person). I have to now revise it for my AP Language class. I revised it, but can someone please double check my number and help me edit it? Please be brutal, as it has to be perfect and on par with other APLang papers. Thank you guys so much!
Gay Marriage: It’s Okay to be Gay
In a time where twenty-five million people have died of AIDS and currently over forty million people are infected with this deadly disease, America puts gay marriage on the ballot. Our climate might be irreversible because of our own doing, Bush, in the name of religion, names same-sex marriage the real danger that threatens our society. Thousands of our troops our dying and well over 150,000 Iraqi civilians are killed in order to establish peace and democracy. There is growing instability of the Middle East, breeding ground for insurgents and potential terrorists, yet America brings up same-sex marriage. You would wonder where our priorities are! No growing cases of child abuse, the many people that go to bed hungry, and the many more that have to go without health insurance, get people so upset as the notion of a gay couple who would like to share the same rights as heterosexuals! All men are created equal. In America, the year 2006, people are NOT created equal. Clearly, people with a heterosexual lifestyle are well above the people who ‘choose’ to be homosexual. Even the wording puts homosexuals and heterosexuals apart.
Homosexual marriage should be allowed with equal rights and benefits. Homosexuality is not a preference but a biological trait. There will be no negative effect on society when we treat homosexuals the same way as we treat heterosexuals. In Europe this issue was solved decades ago with no negative effect on its social and cultural life. The rights and benefits we grant adult human beings should not be defined by the way a person loves, but rather by how a person lives.
Non-religious people have little or no problems with gay people that want to have matrimony. According to the Lectivus code, the Bible forbids gay marriage, it also forbids eating shrimp, eating meat in combination with cheese, having a ham sandwich (Lev. 11:9-12; 11:7; 19:27), and condemns men who cut hair above their sideburns. Contrary to that the Christian and Jewish Bible is in favor of polygamy! If voters use the Bible as their moral compass than it would only be fair if people stop eating cheeseburgers a McDonalds and eating shrimp. You cannot read the Bible and pick and choose which ‘sins’ you will you against each other. American people have the Constitutional rights of religious freedom; no one has the right to force another human to live by their own beliefs. It is fine if you live how the Christian and Jewish Bible tells you to and someone does the same with a Bible that allows homosexuality, but don’t use religion as a sledgehammer (Pastor Defends Gay Marriage Options). You cannot change sexuality, either you are gay or you are not (No Evidence Exists That Same-Sex Marriage Will Harm Society). The real question is what harm would it do and to whom? Over fifty percent of heterosexual marriages end in divorce. Single parent houses are hard for children to adapt to. No kid is bad off when growing up in a loving environment. One’s sexuality should not interfere with raising kids. Abusive heterosexuals should not be a priority over caring gay people that want to raise children (Religious Tolerance: Reasons Why Same-Sex Marriage Is a Bad Idea and Seven Rebuttals). What is good for a heterosexual is good enough for a homosexual. No European society has crumbled because of acceptance of gay people. There was a time when people couldn’t be equal because of their skin color. Later it was interracial marriages. We ended slavery, accepted interracial marriages, extended our constitutional rights to immigrants, people of all colors, religion, and race. It is time that we include homosexuals in our constitutional rights.
A considerable large percentage of the population has been spoon-fed myths that are keeping them from accepting gay marriage. It is time that we tell the truth. The first myth is that children with gay marriage are subjected to hate because they are exposed to homophobia. Using the same argument a person could say that interracial marriages and individuals of interracial ancestry shouldn’t marry because of racism. The second myth is that children raised by homosexuals will grow up to be gay. Gays, lesbians, religious liberals, and human sexuality researchers have reached a consensus saying that people do not choose sexuality. Studies show that children raised by homosexuals actually discriminate less or not at all! Isn’t that something we all want for our children? The last myth is the biggest myth that prevents many people from accepting gay marriage. Politicians have been telling the public that same-sex marriage will harm interracial relations. America, this is not true! Dictators and rulers of the word are mystified by the way we permit people to freely change their religion, allow atheists and agnostics to write and lecture about gods non-existence, allowing only monogamy, allowing Muslim women to marry a non-Muslim man, and permitting marriage without prior approval of the family. Gay marriage is actually approved by many countries and religions (Religious Tolerance)! Many Christians and most branches of Islam and Orthodox Judaism are against gay marriage, but outside of those, most religions are unopposed to gay marriage. Or as Bidstrup once said “In a society that claims religious freedom, the use of the power of the state to enforce private religious sensibilities is an affront to all who would claim the right to worship according to the dictates of their own conscience” (Gay Marriage: The Arguments and the Motives).
Christianity should not be used as a reason for why homosexuals should marry. Using ones religion to force another person of a different religion to be forbid of matrimony is wrong and should be changed. Being gay is natural and we should not deny them of their human rights. The Defense of Marriage Act completely undermines the first amendment of freedom of religion. Should we rewrite the constitution to say “and justice for all the white, rich, heterosexual, republican Americans” or shall we really attempt to restore justice in today’s society?
Gay Marriage: It’s Okay to be Gay
In a time where twenty-five million people have died of AIDS and currently over forty million people are infected with this deadly disease, America puts gay marriage on the ballot. Our climate might be irreversible because of our own doing, Bush, in the name of religion, names same-sex marriage the real danger that threatens our society. Thousands of our troops our dying and well over 150,000 Iraqi civilians are killed in order to establish peace and democracy. There is growing instability of the Middle East, breeding ground for insurgents and potential terrorists, yet America brings up same-sex marriage. You would wonder where our priorities are! No growing cases of child abuse, the many people that go to bed hungry, and the many more that have to go without health insurance, get people so upset as the notion of a gay couple who would like to share the same rights as heterosexuals! All men are created equal. In America, the year 2006, people are NOT created equal. Clearly, people with a heterosexual lifestyle are well above the people who ‘choose’ to be homosexual. Even the wording puts homosexuals and heterosexuals apart.
Homosexual marriage should be allowed with equal rights and benefits. Homosexuality is not a preference but a biological trait. There will be no negative effect on society when we treat homosexuals the same way as we treat heterosexuals. In Europe this issue was solved decades ago with no negative effect on its social and cultural life. The rights and benefits we grant adult human beings should not be defined by the way a person loves, but rather by how a person lives.
Non-religious people have little or no problems with gay people that want to have matrimony. According to the Lectivus code, the Bible forbids gay marriage, it also forbids eating shrimp, eating meat in combination with cheese, having a ham sandwich (Lev. 11:9-12; 11:7; 19:27), and condemns men who cut hair above their sideburns. Contrary to that the Christian and Jewish Bible is in favor of polygamy! If voters use the Bible as their moral compass than it would only be fair if people stop eating cheeseburgers a McDonalds and eating shrimp. You cannot read the Bible and pick and choose which ‘sins’ you will you against each other. American people have the Constitutional rights of religious freedom; no one has the right to force another human to live by their own beliefs. It is fine if you live how the Christian and Jewish Bible tells you to and someone does the same with a Bible that allows homosexuality, but don’t use religion as a sledgehammer (Pastor Defends Gay Marriage Options). You cannot change sexuality, either you are gay or you are not (No Evidence Exists That Same-Sex Marriage Will Harm Society). The real question is what harm would it do and to whom? Over fifty percent of heterosexual marriages end in divorce. Single parent houses are hard for children to adapt to. No kid is bad off when growing up in a loving environment. One’s sexuality should not interfere with raising kids. Abusive heterosexuals should not be a priority over caring gay people that want to raise children (Religious Tolerance: Reasons Why Same-Sex Marriage Is a Bad Idea and Seven Rebuttals). What is good for a heterosexual is good enough for a homosexual. No European society has crumbled because of acceptance of gay people. There was a time when people couldn’t be equal because of their skin color. Later it was interracial marriages. We ended slavery, accepted interracial marriages, extended our constitutional rights to immigrants, people of all colors, religion, and race. It is time that we include homosexuals in our constitutional rights.
A considerable large percentage of the population has been spoon-fed myths that are keeping them from accepting gay marriage. It is time that we tell the truth. The first myth is that children with gay marriage are subjected to hate because they are exposed to homophobia. Using the same argument a person could say that interracial marriages and individuals of interracial ancestry shouldn’t marry because of racism. The second myth is that children raised by homosexuals will grow up to be gay. Gays, lesbians, religious liberals, and human sexuality researchers have reached a consensus saying that people do not choose sexuality. Studies show that children raised by homosexuals actually discriminate less or not at all! Isn’t that something we all want for our children? The last myth is the biggest myth that prevents many people from accepting gay marriage. Politicians have been telling the public that same-sex marriage will harm interracial relations. America, this is not true! Dictators and rulers of the word are mystified by the way we permit people to freely change their religion, allow atheists and agnostics to write and lecture about gods non-existence, allowing only monogamy, allowing Muslim women to marry a non-Muslim man, and permitting marriage without prior approval of the family. Gay marriage is actually approved by many countries and religions (Religious Tolerance)! Many Christians and most branches of Islam and Orthodox Judaism are against gay marriage, but outside of those, most religions are unopposed to gay marriage. Or as Bidstrup once said “In a society that claims religious freedom, the use of the power of the state to enforce private religious sensibilities is an affront to all who would claim the right to worship according to the dictates of their own conscience” (Gay Marriage: The Arguments and the Motives).
Christianity should not be used as a reason for why homosexuals should marry. Using ones religion to force another person of a different religion to be forbid of matrimony is wrong and should be changed. Being gay is natural and we should not deny them of their human rights. The Defense of Marriage Act completely undermines the first amendment of freedom of religion. Should we rewrite the constitution to say “and justice for all the white, rich, heterosexual, republican Americans” or shall we really attempt to restore justice in today’s society?