The Ongoing Debate of Same-Sex Marriages

Look it up in the dictionary, seriously: it’s “the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law” or “the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage” or even simply put an “intimate or close union.”

You won’t find any inherent ‘Christian’ origin to the word. In fact, according to the Merriam-Webster, the word was first used in the 14th century. Think about the origins of God’s Word, and you can surmise that the actual English word of ‘marriage’ wasn’t obviously used! It’s a translation.

So…. That being said, why are people still arguing like little children over a ‘word?’

You have your traditionals, mostly religious, taking ownership of the institute itself, and same-sex couples wanting the right to use the word as well. The fact is this: a marriage is a marriage, regardless of same sex or traditional man and wife. What you call it doesn’t matter. Look at the dictionary again.

For Lord’s sake, we’re not going to call them ‘unions’ or anything, or else we’ll have to change a bunch of other things: holy matrimony to legal union, getting married to getting ‘unioned,’ marriage vows to union promises (because you know the religious rite would be all over the word ‘vow,’ too).

Get off the high horse with the ‘marriage is from God’ stuff and let it go. Homosexuals have every right to get ‘married’ as anyone else, right? Let’s not twist and confuse the system anymore by injecting more lingo into something that should be simple (after all, marriage is a lot of things but simple!).

Same Sex Marriages & Marriage Equality

A socially or legally recognized union of two people of the same social gender or biological sex is called a gay marriage. Countries have legally formalized marriages of same-sex couples. Recognizing such marriages has become a political, moral, civil rights, religious, and social issue in many countries. Many conflicts have arisen over allowing these couples to marry, whether the term marriage or civil union be used, or be granted limited rights or equal rights.

An argument supporting marriages of the same sex says that denying legal access to benefits and marriage discriminates based on their sexual orientation. Another supporting argument is that physical, psychological, and financial well being are all enhanced by being married. Also the children of these couples will benefit if raised by both parents in a recognized legal union that is supported by society. Court documents state if gay women and men are singled out as being ineligible to marry it stigmatizes them and invites discrimination of the public against them. Other arguments state that there are social consequences of gay marriages, parenting concerns, tradition, and religious grounds.

Gay marriages are legal in Belgium, Argentina, Iceland, Canada, Norway, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Portugal, and Sweden. Mexico City, USA and more.. performs gay marriages but has to have recognition of all the Mexican states. Attitudes towards gay marriages range from praise, to indifference, toleration, and prohibition. Some opposers argue that religious freedoms will be eroded, and while good for a couple, the rights of children are undermined. Some supporters think the government should not regulate personal relationships.

Who Were the First Lesbians to be Legally Married?

There names are Helene Faasen and Anne-Marie Thus, and their civil wedding was approved by the law of the Netherlands on April 1st, 2001. Holland was the first country to approve same sex marriage.

First Great Step for Lesbians

”We married for love, not politics. But of course we were aware it was an historic moment” said Anne-Marie

Her wife, notary Helene Faasen, added, ”By tying the knot in front of the world’s press, we wanted to make other people think about how horrible it is to be denied something that is a natural right for others. A heterosexual person never needs to think about whether he is allowed to marry or not, he simply needs to be lucky enough to find the love of his life.”

The Dutch couple shared their vows with three pairs of grooms. Since then, over 15,000 gay and lesbian couples have wed in the Netherlands – about 2 per cent of the total number of marriages registered between 2001 and 2010, based on figures from the Central Statistics Bureau.

According to the Amsterdam-based COC, the world’s oldest homosexual advocacy group, there are about a million gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in the Netherlands out of a total population of 16.7 million.

Anne-Marie and Helene live with their two children, 10-year-old Nathan, and Myrthle, 9, in Maastricht in south Netherlands, where Anne-Marie says she loves to spend her free time cooking and Helene relaxes by tending the garden.

Their children were born from Anne-Marie and anonymous sperm donors.

“Like many other people, we have a family, work, a house, a dog and two rabbits,” said Anne-Marie, who met “the love of my life” on a blind date in 1998.

Lesbian seeking gay man for marriage

The app, called Queers, allows gay men to connect to a network of over 4000 lesbians in order to enter into a ‘co-operative marriage’.

The agreement which is referred to as a ‘xinghun’ in China, operates much like the Western notion of a beard, whereby a person may date someone in order to conceal their sexuality.

Users of the app have explained a xinghun allows them to continue with the appearance of heterosexuality and conceal their sexuality from oftentimes conservative parents.

Although China decriminalised homosexuality in 1997, many of the nation’s older generation still view being lesbian or gay as a mental illness (China removed the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder in 2001).

Founder of Queers, Liao Zhuoying said since the app launched two weeks ago, he has had over 10,000 users sign up.

Liao said Queers was a by-product of his company’s dating and meet-up apps, Gaypark and Lespark. He told the South China Post he had noticed a section of gay men were searching for lesbian wives whilst on his sites so he conducted a survey to canvas the needs of his community and Queers was born…