I Got an A!

Woo Hoo! I got an A on my first real english paper. My english class is all about argumentation and arguing effectively through writing. The assignment was to write about any topic concerning families or realtioniships pertaining to the series of articles we had read. I decided that I would write about how the leaglization of same-sex marriage would be harmful to society and the traditional family. I turned it in last week and have been waiting all week to see my grade. I was very pleased with my grade. Now I'll have to come up with something just as good for this weeks assignment.

I copied my paper into this post if you want to read it, but it is about a 3 1/2 page paper so if you really don't care then you can feel free to stop here.
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Family values, the definition of family and the homosexual agenda are some of the most prevalent issues concerning our society today. Political debates and judicial hearings dealing with these issues have become the common interest pieces of the modern media. Such a controversial issue has resulted in many arguments and opinions formed on whether or not the implementation of legalizing same-sex marriage would be beneficial or detrimental to society and the traditional American family. Advocates of same-sex marriage pose the question to opponents of how legalizing same-sex marriages could possibly be harmful to society. However, there are many problems that would arise from lawmakers compromising on this issue, and these problems could destroy the traditional American family as we know it.
If someone were asked to define what the term “traditional family” meant, every explanation would include a marriage relationship between one man and one woman, and then continue on with addition of children and so forth. Unfortunately, over the past few decades this definition has been challenged with increasing severity. Proponents of the homosexual life style in America have increasingly been working to force their agenda upon lawmakers as well as the American society as a whole. The judicial system has never been more saturated with cases dealing with the issue of same sex civil unions than it is right now. Homosexuals are rising up in an effort to redefine marriage and this puts the existence of traditional families in jeopardy.
Homosexuals try to justify their cause by claiming that the denial of a legal marriage is an infringement on their civil rights and liberties. However, if lawmakers choose to compromise on this issue and legalize same-sex marriage, where then is the line drawn in terms of what is considered legal for a marriage relationship? If same-sex marriages are legal should polygamy become legal? If two men or two women are legally recognized as a married couple, then why not two men and one woman? Or who is to say that a marriage between a father and his daughter should not also become legalized? To deny marriage to any of these extreme relationships, from the standpoint of homosexuals, would be an infringement upon their civil rights. Redefining marriage in this way could result in the existence of any of these seemingly radical relationships, and that could result in permanently altering, or even destroying the American family.
The redefinition of marriage would not just affect adults, but every member of the family, namely children. According to findings reported by Dr. James Dobson of Focus On The Family, a non-profit organization committed to protecting family values, many homosexual relationships are actually polygamous. That leaves children whose parents are involved in these types of relationships being tossed around from relationship to relationship. A child could end up with four or six moms rather than the traditional one, or two moms in the case of step-parents. This system is very hard for children to adjust to, and the effects could be severely detrimental. A quote from Dr. D. Merilee Clunis, author of “The Lesbian Parenting Book”, provides evidence that homosexuals do not have a problem using their children as a sort of test subject to gain information on how same-sex marriages affect the development of children. Dr. Clunis writes, “It will be interesting to see overtime whether or not lesbian sons have an easier or harder time developing their gender identity than do boys with live-in fathers” (243). The phrase “it will be interesting to see” is quite disturbing. It shows just how willing homosexuals are to view and treat their children as a social-experiment.
Many professionals who support the homosexual lifestyle will be quick to report that the homosexual lifestyle is no less healthy than participating in heterosexual relationships. Homosexual couples are eager to claim that it is their fundamental human right to be married and that heterosexuals will not even be affected by it. They also argue that there is scientific evidence that suggests there are no significant differences in children raised in heterosexual or homosexual families. However, these statements are false for a number of reasons.
First of all, the same-sex family experiment is just beginning and there have not been significant populations of such families for scientists to observe over a long enough period of time to announce that there is no developmental differences between children raised in a homosexual environment compared to a heterosexual environment. Secondly, in regard to the health issue of homosexual relationships, studies performed by the Family Research Institute indicate that homosexual activities can shorten a person’s life span up to thirty years. This is because leading a homosexual lifestyle makes a person more prone to AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Finally, the argument that homosexual relationships will not affect anyone but themselves seems naïve. Homosexuality has already infected our culture to an unimaginable degree, so how could the legalization of homosexual marriage not affect every single person? Any change in the supreme legislation of a country, like a constitutional amendment, is going to have some effect on all of the country’s citizens.
Legally recognizing homosexual partners as a married couple would be insulting to the entire institution of marriage. As mentioned before, many homosexual relationships are polygamous, so their efforts to be legally married are not being performed out of a desire to take part in such a special relationship as marriage, which is a sign of a life time commitment to one person. This raises the question of why are homosexuals fighting so hard to gain this title of marriage? Homosexual couples have already succeeded in being granted the legal ability to be joined in civil unions, yet they continue to be unsatisfied. If they simply wanted to be recognized as a couple, then the disputes would have ended when they gained the right in several states to be joined in civil unions, yet they continue to press the issue. The only legal difference between a marriage and a civil union is that a civil union is considered a partial marriage arrangement, and therefore the spouses do not receive any of the federal benefits obtained through marriage. This seems to provide the answer to why homosexuals are fighting so hard to be legally married. They want the legal benefits. To allow marriage to be demoralized like this and used simply as a tool to get all you can from the government would have negative repercussions for generations to come. The marriage relationship is the core foundation of the family unit, and to allow that foundation to crumble because of actions taken by homosexuals would result in the destruction of the family.
The family unit is becoming a precious commodity that needs to be preserved and protected for the sake of our nation. Our nation was founded on the principles of traditional family values. It has been the unwavering commitment to maintain these values as the reputation of the true face of America that has caused the nation to prosper and flourish to the degree that it has. The precedent was set early in our nation’s development and settling for anything less than upholding those standards will only bring about the country’s ruin. Action needs to be taken now to ensure that the traditional American family continues to exist for generations to come, and that means preventing homosexual activists from gaining any more ground as far as legally redefining marriage and families.