14 November 2016

Dear Future President:

On June 26, 2015, gay marriage was confirmed legal in all states by the Supreme Court which sparked plenty of controversy throughout the country. Until this big decision, states themselves chose whether or not they wanted to allow gay marriage, and now have no voice. I believe wholeheartedly that gay marriage is wrong, and this is not only because I am a Catholic teenager living in a conservative town in South Louisiana, marriage has been an aspect of society defined as between a man and women long before the church agreed with it. In current times, people have become so accepting of new norms and cultures that they have forgotten the basic reasons the universal norm, marriage, was created in the first place.

A common argument in favor of gay marriage is that homosexual couples should be allowed to be married legally for the sole reason of receiving the same benefits as heterosexual couples. Although this argument seems logical, the reason that marriage is even relevant is because of procreation. Homosexuals can never produce offspring while both parents are the same gender, therefore it would only shift the purpose of marriage to adult gratification from raising children, which is the primary purpose of marriage. Also, denying homosexuals the option to get married is not a basic form of discrimination. Marriage has long been socially defined as between a man and women, dating back millenniums to The Garden of Eden not centuries, and until recently had been adopted by all governments and major religions of the world. Heterosexual marriage isn’t a Catholic thing, it isn’t a Russian thing, and it’s not a white people thing; it has been the definition of marriage since before man went to the moon. Some people say that gay marriage is not only protected under the constitution's use of liberty and equality, but also as marriage is further de-institutionalized, the door is left open for polygamy, incest, and other non-traditional marriages to become legal as well. Legalizing marriage between two men or two women begs the question as to why group marriage and family marriage aren’t next to come. If these other types of marriages were to be made legal, the values and ethics of our country would all come into question. This is because if marriage is being redefined because a group of people are "discriminated against," then dads and daughters who "love" each other should be able to be married as well if they feel "discriminated against" too. If marriage is redefined, might as well add polygamy and incest and even animal marriage to the new definition so no group of people feel as if they are discriminated against. If gay marriage is now legal, what separates it from other marriages such as these? How is one okay and not the others?

It is through the children that are produced that sexual relations become important to society. Even though some heterosexual couples can't have children or choose not to, the potential to produce children is something that homosexuals will never have with each other. Children are the future of society, and even if these homosexuals do have children through outside means, they can never join their child with both their biological mother and biological father.

Marriage itself is a pre-political, pre-religion, pre-civilization natural phenomena that human nature created. Re-defining marriage to include those of the same sex is beyond the government because marriage preceded it, will exceed it, and is necessary to keep it going. Future generations come from the proper definition of marriage between heterosexuals. Family itself is the base of society and the entire country itself only exists because of it. The government was only created to serve the people, and it is not within their power to redefine marriage for their interests of equal treatment.

Sincerely,

Ava               

                                                                            Bibliography

Paprocki, Thomas J. "The Catholic Church Should Never Recognize Same-Sex Marriages." The Catholic Church, edited by Michael Ruth, Greenhaven Press, 2016. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=false&displayGroupName=Viewpoints&currPage=&scanId=&query=&prodId=OVIC&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&mode=view&catId=&limiter=&display-query=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010384269&windowstate=normal&activityType=&failOverType=&commentary=&source=Bookmark&u=lafa43079&jsid=c9d9997cdfa73d04298ed15dbc5093ce. Accessed 10 Nov. 2016.

"Should Gay Marriage Be Legal?" ProCon.org, 3 May 2016, gaymarriage.procon.org/. Accessed 10 Nov. 2016.