Lake City 7th-grader, Whitney Strickland, was asked to write a persuasive essay and turn it in to her Language Arts teacher. The instructions for the assignment included picking a topic that she had an opinion on and then explaining why she felt that way. Read her essay in support of marriage equality!
By: Whitney Strickland
7th Grader, Lake City, FL.
'I believe in marriage equality. I think everyone should have the right to be married to who they love no matter what gender. I have learned a lot about this topic from my parents. How would a straight couple like to be told that they can't be married? I can bet they wouldn't be happy about it. I know my parents would be very mad if they were told they couldn’t marry each other. People keep using the Bible as an excuse to not allow it. I don't think that is a good argument because religion can't make our laws and not everyone has the same religion. My parents have friends that are with the same sex. I want them to be happy and to be allowed to be married. Honestly, marriage equality isn't going to affect our lives. But it will make a great impact of couples that are the same sex and would love to be married. It will make a great and wonderful impact. Everyone is supposed to have equal rights in this county. I believe that everyone doesn't mean only certain people. Everyone means everyone and that's all there is to it. To say they can have civil unions and not marriage wouldn't be right either. A civil union is similar to a marriage but it is not the same. It still would not be equal. I'd be willing to bet that if this country had marriage equality in every state the divorce rates would look much better than what they do now. Many people would be happier too. Like the one saying goes, "marriage is about love not about gender."'