Regression of Attitude
Nothing is constant. We remain in a culture of conditions and variables. Over the ages, people have gradually started to judge, condemn, and shame homosexuals. Not only have attitudes changed, but also those negative attitudes have affected the gay community in more ways than one. Recently, the Supreme Court has been reviewing two important cases that directly affect the marriage rights of same-sex couples and both of these cases are significantly controversial—but why? How has the American culture developed these feeling towards homosexuality that even makes it a question as to whether or not they should be allowed to get married?
In 1996, DOMA, or the Defense of Marriage Act, was enacted. The Act established that states held the right to condone same-sex marriage; and this meant that, although states could legalize gay marriage, they could also make it so that same-sex couples could not get married in their state and therefore their union dismissed. The Act also defined marriage as “only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word ‘spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife’’(official document). Similar to the Defense of Marriage Act but more extreme, Proposition 8 was enacted in 2008 affecting the state of California and banning the marriage of same-sex couples and only acknowledging the couple in a civil union. Marriage should also be acknowledged as more than just a ceremony and two rings, federal benefits are available for married couples and with marriage unavailable to the gay community, those benefits are not an option. Civil unions have some of the rights of marriage but not all—which is better than nothing but really just a slap in the face to the gay community.
Tuesday, March 26, Prop 8 went to the Supreme Court in the case of Hollingsworth v. Perry and Wednesday, March 27, DOMA followed in the case of United States v. Windsor. Once reviewed, these cases could go any number of ways. They “could make marriage a constitutional right for everyone or a narrow ruling that would leave the issue to the states, with multiple options in between” (Ny magazine). The main arguments against gay marriage is that same-sex couples can not have children of their own and are viewed as being unable to provide a stable environment to raise children. The argument for gay marriage is that with the absence of more than 1,000 benefits that married couples have with federal benefits, the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment seems to be violated.
With contemporary American society determining a couple’s eligibility to marry based on sexuality, the question should be raised: how have we come to this state of mind? Unlike today, “[a]t the beginning of the seventeenth century a certain frankness was still common, it would seem. Sexual practices had little need of secrecy; words were said without undue reticence, and things were done without too much concealment; one had a tolerant familiarity with the illicit…It was a time of direct gestures, shameless discourse, and open transgressions, when anatomies were shown and intermingled at will, and knowing children hung about amid the laughter of adults: it was a period when bodies ‘made a display of themselves’” (The History of Sexuality). The time period had little need to censor because people were not ashamed of themselves, their bodies, their interactions, or their relationships—but this was all short-lived. As the Victorian bourgeoisie fell, sexuality was confined to the home and was no longer a publicly acceptable. Families started to take relationships seriously thought of them to take as function of reproduction. People stopped talking about sex and relating topics.
Homosexual tendencies were denied, driven out, and reduced to silence within this new culture, as it became taboo and the public majority’s priorities shifted to procreation. “Not only did [homosexuality] not exist, it had no right to exist and would be made to disappear upon its least manifestation—whether in acts or words” (The History of Sexuality).
As times have changed, people’s attitudes have diverged into different views. The LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, and questioning) community has become more distinct as individuals have come out and made connections with other individuals that they can confide in and relate to. There are also allies whom are not gay but support the LGBTQ community—but there are also people against them and their lifestyles. A lot of the people who are against the homosexual lifestyle support their opinions with religious beliefs. Some Christian individuals believe that homosexuality is a sin and that homosexuals will go to hell for their “choice.” They create camps where they try to get people out of the homosexual lifestyle and save them; and some people claim that in these camps God has brought them out of homosexuality—but why do they feel the need to change? People use religion to support their attitudes towards the gay community and in the camps they shame gay people out of letting their feelings shown. Ex-gay people become unable to accept the fact that they are gay and there is nothing they can do about it. Even people who haven’t