Most people believe that they deserve the rights they are granted by the government. An
American citizen who pays their taxes, serves their community and abides by the law should be granted
the rights of an American. However, not all citizens are granted equal rights. Gay and lesbians are
consistently denied rights that are typically taken for granted by the average American. Specifically, gay
and lesbians couples are denied the right to marry even if they are upstanding citizens. They are held at
an unfair disadvantage solely because of their sexual orientation. This discrimination must stop because
gay and lesbian couples are law-abiding citizens too, who should be afforded the same rights as
The Human Rights Campaign, which work to achieve equal rights for lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and
transgender people, is supporting the effort to attain survivor benefits for domesticate partners. They
believe, “Any alteration to the Social Security system must include partners of gays and lesbians in its
definition of survivor”. Currently, there are no programs that give homosexuals survivor benefits like
the ones that are provided for heterosexuals who are married or divorced. Gay and lesbian partners are
not able to claim benefits of their deceased, regardless of the fact that all working citizens heterosexual
or homosexual pay into the Social Security system for survivor benefits. Sadly, this leaves many gay
and lesbian couples with an unstable retirement. The most disturbing fact is that even though
homosexuals and heterosexual both pay the government for survivor benefits, even people who divorced
can even claim survivor benefits whereas a lifelong gay/lesbian partner cannot. This is a complete
discrimination against people of different sexual orientation. This is only one example of how the
government’s refusal to recognize same-sex marriages denies homosexuals rights that are supposedly
protected by the state.
The ones who suffer the greatest repercussions of such prejudices are the children of gay and
lesbian couples. Non-biological children of gays and lesbians cannot receive survivor benefits if the
deceased partner did not legally adopt them. But how is this related to whether or not homosexuals should
be allowed to marry? Same-sex couples do have the privilege of adopting children to begin a family of
their own. However, they are often rejected because of their unmarried status. Even if the government
does not wish to provide some financial security for homosexual couples, it should not punish the
children of such relationships. The government directly discriminates against the children of same-sex
marriages by not allowing them the same rights as children who have heterosexual parents. Children do
not chose who their parents are regardless of your stance on the issue.
Homosexual’s lack of legal recognition effects them in numerous ways. The argument is much
deeper then weather or not they should be married because they live together. If same-sex couples are
paying taxes to build roads and help public schools like the heterosexual couples, they should be afforded
the same rights.
The fight is for gay and lesbian couples to gain legal recognition, not religious recognition.
Even most people against same-sex marriages agree that they do not hate gays they just disagree with
their lifestyle because of their religious beliefs and church affiliation. The battle to legalize same-sex
civil unions is not trying to infringe upon the beliefs of the churches. These unions are to be recognized
by the state, not by all churches. Priests do not have to perform these ceremonies, nor do they have to be
held in a church. It would be unfair for the government to decide in what people should and should not
believe, this would be an infringement upon our right to freedom of religion. However, this does not give
the government the right to discriminate against gay and lesbian couples in the eyes of the law because
the government and religious beliefs are supposed to be separate. Weather same-sex civil unions should
be recognized legally is not a religious question. This is a debate over whether or not people of different
sexual orientation are to be viewed equally in the eyes of the government, and will be accepted into
However, some people argue that same-sex marriage would be tolerable if they were confined
to their own communities. That way the general public would not be “subjected” to their practices. Gay
people are not lepers. We cannot isolate a faction of the population and force them to live in designated
Therefore, as a president of the U.S. it is necessary to set aside religious issues to look at this
debate from a legal standpoint. All citizens of the United States should be afforded equal rights regardless
of race, gender or sexual orientation. It is because of this legal discrimination that homosexuals are
denied such rights as hospital visitation, socials security and disability insurances. Discrimination is
wrong. The first step in correcting social injustice must be taken soon. The issue of legal marriage
between two people of the same- sex must be settled now to stop the discrimination that is openly
occurring across America.