America is the land of liberty where everyone has freedom of choiceof lifestyle, religion etc. America has always believed in equality with afew exceptions from history which were resolved. Segregation is one ofthose exceptions.
African-Americans until 1965 were passionately hated bywhites. Even after the legislation was passed saying that all men areequal, America still struggled to adapt to this change. Today America wouldnot do such a thing as discriminating against people because of skin color. The United States has been a model of democratic principles to the worldfor centuries. However, currently this world superpower is having a majordispute on whether or not to legalize gay marriages and this heated issuehas divided Americans and caused the country to closely re-examine itsprinciples and ideals.
In America today, at the political level there is a heated debate onwhether there should be a ban to same-sex marriages or not. Recently in hislast State of the Union Address, President Bush supported the ban on gaymarriage saying that he wants to “prevent the meaning of marriage frombeing changed forever” (NY Times). What is the meaning of marriage?According to David Brooks of the NY Times, “marriage joins two people in asacred bond. It demands that they make an exclusive commitment to eachother and thereby takes two discrete individuals and turns them into kin. “He also said that “gays and lesbians are banned from marriage and forbiddento enter into this powerful and ennobling institution.
” (NY Times). In LasVegas two people can get married in ten minutes at a shabby chapel. Theydon’t even need to wear dresses, have guests or even be sober; it can be asuntraditional as a couple wants. Hasn’t America already defaced the meaningof marriage suggested by President Bush? On television there are realityshows in which people get married for money.
One example is “My Big FatObnoxious Fiance”. The basis is that a woman must marry a fat, hairy,disgraceful man in order to get $1million. The family members believe thatthe daughter is really getting married and is shocked at her choice. Here awoman will go to the extent of putting her family in pain and crush theirdreams for just money.
This is a really terrible thing to do to anyone andyet it is on the television so that other Americans can laugh their headsoff. Hasn’t the true meaning of marriage been torn apart when a price isput on emotions and we enjoy it? Ordinary humans do not have the power tojudge and decide how people should live their lives. By attempting to bansame-sex marriage, the government is robbing gays of this sacred union ofwhich no man can possibly fathom the meaning. Since biblical times gays have existed but were ashamed because theywere the subject of discrimination.
Today however, in America, gays are notbelittled as they were back then. One’s sexual orientation used to be keptprivate but now it is open in America more than ever. Every large city hasa small community for gay people. Many gays live in cities like New York,Los Angeles, Washington, Las Vegas and such because it is in these areasthat they are not discriminated so much.
There are gay newspapers, gaymovies and shows, gay bands etc. One popular show is Bravo’s “Queer Eye forthe Straight Guy” which is a hit among a lot of Americans- both homosexualsand heterosexuals. In New York City, The Harvey Milk School, a school forgays, was opened recently. The reason for this is because gay youngsterswere made fun of, beaten and treated horribly by their heterosexual peers. In the past there were schools specially founded for black kids because ofracist reasons.
Has America gone a step backward? Haven’t we seen thatsegregation was soon abolished and everyone was united? If we know theoutcome of such a situation why then would we want to repeat it again? Itis not fair for kids to feel left out because of their sexual orientation. A gay kid wants to be equal and treated as any other kid. Is that too muchto ask of society? America insists that it treats everyone equally but ifthis was true then we wouldn’t need a separate school for gays. Americansare so diverse with so many various lifestyles provided by. Therefore itshould not be a shock to the government when
