Damon Perkins

06/26/15
Ethics Paper

Gay Marriage Ethics Term Paper

Today is June 26, 2015, which marks a monumental day in US

history, which is the U.S. Supreme Court announced the legalization of
Gay marriage throughout the U.S. According to CNN, this year marks
the highest percentage ever of Americans a 63% majority of polltakers
backed the freedom to marry as a constitutional right to marry, and
have their marriages recognized by the law as valid (Burke). However,
when applying duty based ethics to the numbers of the polls, you can
see where the ethics either coincide or disagree with the numbers of
the polls.

If a person were to be relying on their religious ethical standards,

the person would be less likely to support the idea of gay marriage,
due to their beliefs. For most monotheists, who fully dedicate their
ethical reasoning; typically believe that God decides what is right and
what is wrong. To these people, these ideas will never change. For if
God decides the ethics, there are unchangeable, and last forever. To
also support this claim, multiple passages, from numerous religious

texts suggest, that it is wrong to be homosexual. In the Christian Bible,

(New King James Version) 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 states Or do you know
that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be
sexually immoral nor men who have sex with men will inherit the
kingdom of God. These passages forbidding homosexuality are not
only found in the bible, but in the Quran as well. Here is a quotation
from a Hadith (Saying of the Prophet) which further refutes
homosexuality "A man should not see the private parts of another
man, and a woman should not see the private parts of another woman,
and a man should not lie with another man under one covering, and a
woman should not lie with another woman under one covering.
(Translation of Sahih Muslim, The Book of Menstruation (Kitab Al-Haid),
Book 003, Number 0667)." With these verses clearly showing that
these monotheistic religions are against homosexuality, it is safe for
one to assume that one using only their religious ethical standards as
their duty-based ethical standards, could also believe that
homosexuality is immoral based on their religion.
However when comparing the duty based ethical standard of
religion to the outcome-based ethics of Utilitarianism, the two
branches of ethics differ greatly. Utilitarianism is a philosophical theory
developed by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Utilitarianism
focuses on the consequences of an action, not the nature of the action
itself or on any set of pre-established moral values or religious beliefs.

Under utilitarian ethics, an action is morally right when, among the

people it affects, it produces the greatest amount of good for the
greatest number(Miller, 2006, pp. 2-1) .
Using Utilitarian ethics can show that same-sex marriages should
be allowed because it would cause the greatest good for the greatest
amount of people. For example, looking into the CNN poll scores, 63%
of Americans believed same-sex marriage should be allowed, which
has grown from 30% in 2003 (.CNN). The polls show that today larger
percentage of Americans believe that same sex should be legal. The
same thing has happened in America before, at one time interracial
marriages were illegal and unprotected. However today these
interracial and now gay marriages are now protected, and our country
no longer has to deal with those that find interracial or gay marriage
illegal.
So far only the outcome-based ethics of Utilitarianism support
the idea of gay marriage in a society like ours, but Kantian duty-based
ethics does not show support for gay marriage. The German
philosopher Immanuel Kant identified some general guiding principles
for moral behavior based on what he believed to be the fundamental
nature of human beings. Kant believed that human beings are
different from physical objects and have the capacity to reason and
think rationally. With that being said, a persons thoughts and actions
should be respected, when human beings actions, or thoughts are

ignored, there are being treated as objects, and are being denied their
basic humanity. A central idea in Kantian ethics is the categorical
imperative, which is a guideline developed by Kant, under which an
action is evaluated in terms of what would happen if everybody else in
the same situation, or category, acted the same way.
On Kants Lectures on Ethics Kant clearly states that marriage
is only for the purpose of procreation, therefore for Kant, if sex doesnt
have the aim of producing a child, then it is immoral. This argument
lacks any reasoning for these times, for Kant produced these ideas
during the 19th century. If one were to state Kants idea that sex is only
for the purpose of procreation, then one must ask about straight
people who do not have children. To be consistent, this would require
that if same sex marriage is banned on this ground, then straight
couples that cant produce offspring should be denied marriage as well.
Now with these ethical theories understood, the social
responsibility theories can help one understand the issues at hand
whilst thinking critically and logically.
Two views make up the concept of corporate social responsibility,
which is the idea that those who run corporations can and should act
ethically and be accountable to society for their actions (Miller, 2006,
pp. 2-3b). The first view of corporate social responsibility is known as
the stakeholder approach. The view of corporate responsibility stresses
that corporations have a duty not just to shareholders, but also to

other groups affected by corporate decisions that are known as

stakeholders. Under this approach the corporation would consider
the impact of its decision making on the companys employees,
customers, creditors, and the community the corporation operates.
The reasoning behind this stakeholder view is that in some
situations, one or more of these groups may have a greater stake in
the company decisions than the shareholders do.
A great example of a company failing to uphold its end of the
stakeholder approach, and to uphold its own corporate responsibility,
would be Chick-Fil-A and its President Dan Cathy. Cathy who is one of
the board of directors for Chick-Fil-A failed to see how his choices
would affect his stakeholders, when Dan Cathy expressed that the
company was guilty as charged in its stance against gay marriage
according to U.S. News. Cathys comments caused the Jim Henson
Company, known for the Muppets to pull all of its toys and partnership
with the restaurants, and the mayors of Boston and Chicago were
against the idea of new Chick-Fil-As opening in their cities.
The second part of corporate social responsibility addresses
corporate citizenship, in which argues that corporations should be good
citizens by promoting goals that society deems worthwhile and taking
positive steps toward solving social problems (Miller, 2006, pp. 2-3b).
Chick-Fil-A failed to consider this with their statements. However Marc
Benioff the CEO of Salesforce could be credited with having excellent

corporate citizenship. Benioff is known as the man who spearheaded

the fight against Mike Pences RFRA freedom law (Kaufman). Benioff
acted against Pences law by threatening to scale back his companys
investment in the state, announcing plans to cancel all Salesforce
programs that would require customers or employees to travel to
Indiana. Benioff was not the only CEO against this legislation, for
organizations like Apple and Nascar joined Benioff and LGBT groups to
fight the law. Benioffs moves not only reflect excellent corporate
citizenship, but stakeholder theory as well.
When combining all of these theories together, mixed with our
current situations today, one can tell whether a company, or an
individual is acting with social responsibility, and whether what kind of
ethics a company or individual is following. With all of this information,
can leave an individual making more decisions involving a deeper level
of complexity within his or her own critical thinking. The knowledge of
these theories, and how they are applied can leave one with a greater
understanding of how the world works, when concerned with ethics
and social responsibility. All of these theories can help us determine
whether what companies or governments decisions that have been
made, have been ethical, and socially responsible.

Citation Page

Chick-Fil-A's Controversial Gay Marriage Beef. (2012, July 27).

Retrieved June 27, 2015, from
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/07/27/chick-fil-ascontroversial-gay-marriage-beef
Kaufman, A. (2015, April 7). The CEO Who Took On Indiana's AntiLGBT Law -- And Won. Retrieved June 27, 2015, from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/07/marc-benioffindiana_n_7017032.html
Burke, D. (2015, April 28). Poll: Religious support growing for gay
marriage - CNN.com. Retrieved June 27, 2015, from
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/27/living/poll-religion-gay-marriage/
Kant, I., & Infield, L. (1963). Lectures on ethics. New York: Harper
& Row.
Miller, R., & Jentz, G. (2006). Business law today: The essentials :
Text & summarized cases--e-commerce, legal, ethical, and
international environment (7th ed., p. Chapter 2). Australia:
Thomson/South-Western West.