Natasha Corral

English 1010
Dr. George
December 7, 2015

Whats Right?
For years gay relationships have been a taboo topic. Since early years it has caused much
debate and argument for reasons such as religion, natural laws and political power. This year a
mile stone was passed by allowing gay marriage nationwide, a progressive step towards gay
rights and true equality. Although it has been a positive step for most, acceptance is still a
difficult task for others.
Statistics have shown an increase in acceptance of gay rights within the past few years.
An article titled The Global Divide, states, Views are not as positive in the U.S., where a smaller
majority (60%) believes homosexuality should be accepted. But Americans are far more tolerant
today than they were in 2007, when 49% said homosexuality should be accepted by society and
41% said it should be rejected. (unkown, 2013) Within a span of 8 years, we as a nation have
grown to accept homosexuality and the rights of those who live this lifestyle by 11%. Even 49%
is a large percentage compared to the early stages of gay rights movements. A good example to
look at would be Henry Gerber. Henry founded The Society for Human Rights in December,
1924. He started publishing a newsletter called Friendship and Freedom, in attempt to reach out
to society with regards to accepting or even acknowledging homosexuality. Consequently, he
was arrested and fired from his job. Henry was not swayed. He continued to write letters to the
editor using a pen name. Although The Society for Human Rights eventually disbanded, he was

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and is still today seen as a pioneer for gay rights. In 1952 a new organization called The
Mattachine Society began the first gay and lesbian publication called, One. Henry Gerber told of
his effort for homosexual rights to The Mattachine Society. He received recognition for his work
in 1963 by having a full account of his work appear in their magazine (Katz, 1992). The push for
gay rights has been a progressive movement throughout US history for decades. Digression
aside, the point is that although 11% may seem to be a small rise in percentages, it made leaps
and bounds towards one of the most significant mile markers in gay rights; homosexual marriage
is now legal in all states.
While the percentage of gay rights has finally surpassed half of the US population, there
are those who still maintain that it is wrong and therefore should not be exercised or allowed.
Some do not necessarily dislike homosexuals or ostracize them from their friendship circles.
They simply do not wish an imposition on their personal beliefs. The new law for gay marriage
has caused a stir of caution and confrontation within religious communities. An LDS friend of
mine (who would like to remain anonymous) expressed his difference in opinion from mine. He
informed me that while he has no problem with homosexuals, he is not thrilled or supportive of
the new marriage law. His reason was because now that people are forced to accept same sexed
couples as a married partnership and union within society, he wondered if the next movement
would be to force churches (namely his own) to condone and accept same sex couples by using
their sacred practices. It is his belief that marriage is to be held in a temple, using sacred and
reverent ceremony only allowed to be witnessed and practiced by approved and worthy members
of their faith. If gay marriage is allowed by law but his religion denies homosexuals the right to
marry within the LDS temple, he worries the sanctity of his religion will be forced to fit the mold
of the law rather than the churchs standards. It is well known that most religious faiths disagree

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with homosexuality and do not condone it. Yet there seem to be different levels of acceptance
between the members of the different faiths. Some do not agree with homosexuality but will not
judge if others around them choose said lifestyle. Others completely support it and encourage
society to be more accepting of it. There are staunch believers who say it is a sin and
unacceptable no matter what. In the article A Change of Heart, it states, For many evangelicals,
the marriage debate isnt really about marriage or families or sex it is about the Bible itself.
They believe when the bible states that God created Adam and Eve, it is obvious that God has
decided homosexuality is not intended for his creations and therefore deemed a sin (Dias, 2015).
While this may be the thought process behind most belief systems, a good majority of people
within religious demographics are changing their ideals to be more tolerant and accepting of
homosexuality. The change of acceptance has not only grown within religious organizations. It
can be seen between generations.
Earlier generations did not agree with or condone homosexuality. Often, people would
hide their sexual preferences if it was in favor of homosexuality. As time has progressed, so too
had the acceptance of homosexuality between generations partly because of social media and
political influence. In the year 2011, Senator Mark Grisanti, is quoted in Leigh Moscowitzs,
Battle Over Gay Marriage: Activism, as saying, I apologize for those who feel offended. I
cannot deny a person, a human being, a taxpayer, a worker, the people of my district and across
this state, the State of New York, and those people who make this the great state that it is the
same rights that I have with my wife. (Moscowitz, 2013) Senator Grisanti has a history of antigay marriage campaigning and being thoroughly against gay marriage. His beliefs changed. He
saw that people where just people and should all have the same rights. Political figures can
change their opinions and learn to accept change certainly influence members of society to do

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the same. Another reason for the acceptance is because of the number of outward homosexuals
putting an identity to the idea. There is strength in numbers and each year the rise in people
coming out so to speak, continuously climbs. With such a large support group, standing up for
ones personal rights has become far more convincing rather than simply seeing a few brave
people trying to exercise their right to be with whom they choose. In Walter Franks, Law & the
Gay Rights Story, he quotes Randy Boyd saying, The more openly gay people there are, the
harder it is for people to hate us. Because you cant hate faces. You can hate organizations. You
can hate them, but when you realize that them is my son or my sister or my next- door
neighbor, then its hard to hate. (Frank, 2014) Once again, we are brought back to the fact that
people are people. The mask of sinner or homo is taken away and we are left with a person who
feels just like anyone else and deserves to have the same rights as anyone else.
The struggle of accepting gay marriage is not only seen for religious groups or old school
idealists. There are those who struggle with the idea of two people being together without the
ability to create life. Some would ask, How could a homosexual couple participate in a union
without the ability to bare children or have families? We as humans were created with an
ability to do something beautiful, create another person. With the growth in technology, this is
still possible for same sex couples. If the couple so chooses, they would simply omit the
traditional way of doing things. There are hetero couples who are unable to create a child who
have the need to resort to scientific methods in order to do so. They can choose this, or adopt.
There are also hetero couples who are married and have the ability to have children but choose to
forgo that option. Why is it then, they are not looked at as doing something against nature? One
of the reasons is because not only does it go against nature for same sex couples to have children,
but also to raise them. It is only natural for a family to have a mother and a father, a member of

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both sexes to balance the family. Since the genes of both parents would be found in the child,
the child is automatically viewed as theirs (heterosexual couples). In Katrina Kimports,
Families in Focus, she provides an example of struggle for a same sex couple who had a hard
time trying to have a healthy family lifestyle before gay marriage was allowed. Katrina quotes
from one of the mothers, I just felt like we had spent thousands and thousands of dollars to try
to approximate marriage to protect our son, to come as close to it as possible. We had to go
through the whole process of having a social worker come to our home and visit to make sure
that we would both have legal rights to him [as mandated by the law]. I was the biological
mother, but we dont make that distinction, but we knew the law would. (Kimport, 2013) With a
same sex couple, the law saw that the genetics of the child belonged to only one of the partners
and hence made it difficult for both partners to be joined parents rather than separate custody
members. This transitions into a new topic of homosexual rights beyond marriage. Now that
homosexuals are allowed to marry, should they not be allowed to have the same benefits of a
married couple such as family? The debate is still very much at large. Rights for same sex
couples are supported more now than they have been before. Fears still remain within the lesser
majority who oppose gay rights such as marriage. Although we may have, at one time, thought it
was acceptable or even right to deprive certain members of society their rights, regardless of the
reasons; the fact remains that we are slowly changing that mindset as a whole.
A comparison of human rights could be made to that of race. Of course there are people
who are racist against any race they deem unacceptable or lesser than their own (White, Black,
Hispanic, Asian etc.) still today. The point is, culturally overall we have learned that racism is
wrong and bad. Sure, at one time it was acceptable even to the point of causing a war between
our own states, but this does not mean that it was right at any time. It was simply accepted.

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This seems to be the same situation with different circumstances and variables. A certain group
of people do not behave or have relations the way that society has grown to see as natural and
right. Therefore, an attempt to keep certain rights from homosexuals, is implemented and thus
causing a strain within our society. Part of those attempts, include hate crimes of violent and
malicious nature. Do the ends justify the means? When is it acceptable to hurt someone that
isnt hurting anyone else? Some parties felt so strongly against the union of gay marriage that
they put their own sacred union on the line and filed for divorce to prove how strongly they felt
against the new law. (Mason, 2015)
Overall, homosexuals are not hurting anyone. They are people and people where meant
to love. Homosexuals should have just as much right to choose whom they will love and spend
their time with just like anyone else. They have the ability to raise a healthy family and live a
healthy lifestyle without doing anyone harm by loving someone of the same sex. Our country is
making leaps and bounds toward progress that other countries could not even fathom at this
point. I support this growth and look forward to see what accomplishments come from not only
our future and present generations, but from older generations who grow with their younger
generations.

Citations
Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the
U.S.A. (New York: Meridian Books, 1992).
The Global Divide on Homosexuality: Greater Acceptance in More Secular
and Affluent Countries. Pewglobal.org. Pew Research Center, 4 June 2013.

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A Change of Heart. By: Dias, Elizabeth, Time, 0040781X, 1/26/2015, Vol. 185,
Issue 2

Moscowitz, Leigh. Battle over Marriage : Gay Rights Activism through the Media. Champaign,
IL, USA: University of Illinois Press, 2013. ProQuest ebrary. Web.
Frank, Walter. Law and the Gay Rights Story : The Long Search for Equal Justice in a Divided
Democracy. New Brunswick, NJ, USA: Rutgers University Press, 2014. ProQuest ebrary. Web.
Kimport, Katrina. Families in Focus : Queering Marriage : Challenging Family Formation in the
United States. New Brunswick, NJ, USA: Rutgers University Press, 2013. ProQuest ebrary. Web.
Mason, Priscilla. Christians Couples File For Divorce En-Masse To Defy Gay
Marriage Ruling. United Media Publishing. United Media Publishing, 4 July.
2015. 11 December 2015.