Same-Sex Marriage

In order to show why same-sex marriage should be legalized I will present 3 arguments. 1. )Same-sex marriage will allow same-sex couples to provide a caring, nurturing environment for children. Opponents of same-sex marriage often cite that same-sex marriage should not be legalized because one of the fundamentals of marriage is child rearing, and that same-sex couples can't meet the criteria as opposed to heterosexual couples. This is of course an important consideration to keep in mind because marriage does give couples certain benefits such as the ability to file for a joint adoption, which is connected with child rearing. Child rearing is a major concern for the government since proper child rearing ensures not only the safety of children, but it also ensures that the children are raised to be productive citizens by the time they're independent. If child rearing is an important factor for the government, the question then becomes "Can same-sex couples provide care equivalent to heterosexual couples? " The answer: yes. Just last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics conducted a three decade review on scientific literature concerning "same-sex parenting". The AAP found in their review that "children's well-being is affected much more by their relationships with their parents, their parents' sense of competence and security, and the presence of social and economic support for the family than by the gender or the sexual orientation of their parents. " [1] Of course, the review did find a few studies that suggested less positive outcomes such as minor learning deficits, but these were attributed to factors that were outside of the parents' sexual orientation, such as a divorce from a previous parents' marriage, or a lack of acceptance of same-sex households. In fact, one of the studies that did find these negative outcomes noted that "married couples seem to offer the best environment for a child"s social and educational development. " [1] In short, this review found that same-sex households seemed to be just as capable of raising kids as opposite-sex households and that marriage provides the best environment to raise kids in. If same-sex couples have proven to be just as capable at parenting as heterosexual couples then it looks like same-sex marriage serves the governments interest in child rearing. Also, if same-sex marriage was legalized it would allow couples to adopt children and raise them in loving nurturing homes. 2. )Legalizing same-sex marriage would bring in more money to the states. Marriages are pretty expensive, and the most recent report on the cost of marriages has estimated that "Couples typically spend between $18,900 and $31,500 but, most couples spend less than $10,000. " [2] Same-sex marriages are, of course, no exception, thus if same-sex marriage was legalized more people would get married, and thus more couples will spend money on these marriages. But just how much money would legalizing same-sex marriage bring to each state? Well, according to a recent study conducted by Sreekar Jashti of "Nerdwallet. com", if same-sex marriage was legalized in all 50 states, over 2.5 billion dollars would be earned. [3] Jashti found this number by taking into account several factors such as the LGBT population in each state, the marriage rate of each state, and the average cost of marriage in each state. Not only did this study find that each state would earn a significant amount of money if same-sex marriage was legalized, but it also took into account the long-term demand for marriage. In short, legalizing same-sex marriage would bring in a significant amount of money to each state even in the long run. 3. )Same-sex marriage doesn"t cause any apparent harm Out of all the arguments that one could give for legalizing same-sex marriage this seems to be the simplest of arguments. For one, same-sex marriage only involves same-sex couples who want to get married, and it isn't apparent that this causes harm towards anybody. Of course, arguments could be made that state that same-sex marriage would undermine marriage and could lead to legalizing polygamy and incest marriages, but there are clear cut differences between these marriages as opposed to same-sex marriage. For one, polygamy involves having multiple wives thus the relationship between them can"t be equal as opposed to monogamous relationships, also polygamy has been shown to lead to severe gender inequality. Dr. Heinrich, a leading evolutionary psychologist has testified that "Competition drives men to use whatever connections, advantages, and alliances they have in order to obtain wives, including striking financial and reciprocal bargains with the fathers of daughters (this is the very common practice of bride price). Once girls and young women become wives, older husbands (and brothers) will strive to protect their young wives from other males (to guarantee paternity of any offspring), and in the process dampen womens freedoms and exacerbate inequality. " [4] As for incest, its relationship to same-sex marriage is unclear. If we assume that both traditional marriage and same-sex marriage involve whether someone is attracted or in love with another person of a different or same sex then it would seem like the logical conclusion would be to legalize incest. However, I should note that if the same principle applies even when we don't legalize same-sex marriage, it's still apparent that incest would still be legalized because it still involves a relationship between two loving and consenting adults. There are more reasons for why incestuous marriages should be banned (such as the possibility of having a child with genetic birth-defects), but it should be noted that if love is the standard of marriage for traditional marriage then it would seem like incestuous marriages would be allowed even if we don"t legalize same-sex marriage. On a final note, I would also like to note that it's hard to see how allowing same-sex marriage can undermine the institution of marriage. After all, legalizing it would increase marriage rates, and in principle, same-sex marriage is just the same as any marriage save for the gender of the people involved. Conclusion In conclusion, since same-sex marriage does not cause any harm towards anyone as well as the institution of marriage, and since same-sex couples have been shown to be just as good at child rearing as heterosexual couples, it would seem like legalizing same-sex marriage would be the smarter choice. I now defer to my opponent to provide rebuttals towards my contentions, and to provide his opening arguments if he can. Sources: [1] . http://pediatrics.aappublications.org... [2] . http://www.costofwedding.com... [3] . http://www.nerdwallet.com... [4] . http://huntergatherer.com...