Anti-Gay vs. Pro-Marriage Anonymous
Course: English 101 Instructor: Carly Zeller Essay Type: Argument
The American dream, one of freedom and equality, is cherished in the heart of every citizen of the United States. With this dream in mind, most of society will say they support equal rights for homosexuals. Ask these members of society if they support gay marriage, however, and the support of gay equality comes to a screeching halt. As seen in the most recently debated public votes, the majority of Americans voted for the Constitutional Amendment, which puts a ban on gay marriage. All of these Americans, ironically, do believe in providing equal rights to the gay community, rights including: no toleration of discrimination in jobs by creating equal opportunity employers, rights protecting gays from hate crimes, rights allowing same access to housing, rights allowing advancement in government, and so on. However, the concept of gay marriage is still not considered a right the American people should extend to homosexuals. A huge misunderstanding underlying this debate is the assumption that gays have a "choice" to whom they can feel attracted. Just as heterosexuals cannot" choose" who they are attracted to, neither can homosexuals. Opposition movements, such as the Focus on the Family led by Dr. James Dobson, claim to "promote the truth that homosexuality is preventable and treatable" (Dobson 74). Dobson goes further in claiming, "living as a homosexual is not as happy-golucky as frequently portrayed in the entertainment media" (Dobson 72). How can a member of the straight community say with an "expert opinion" that homosexuality can be "changed," or even whether a homosexual can be happy or not? What about the research done to prove that
homosexuality is purely genetic? No one would ever" choose" to live a life faced with prejudice and discrimination. The same assumption of choice leads to the idea that homosexuality is purely about sex, often called a...