Imagine you’re in a restaurant and you order a piece of cake that you’ve been dying to have, another customer sees that you’ve made this order and tells your waiter to cancel the order, because they’re on a diet and it offends them you are eating cake. As absurd as this situation is, same sex couples across the globe are facing a similar situation with the issue of legalizing same-sex marriage, except it’s not cake their being denied, it’s their right to marry the person that love just because that person happens to be the same gender as them. Some societies are still stuck in this rut of un-acceptance, and what’s truly absurd is how big the issue has gotten – why is this still an issue?

            This is not a new issue we’re discussing here – this has been an issue for years. According to CNN, a May Gallup Poll taken in 1996 showed 27% of Americans who thought same-sex marriage should be legal, a number that rose to 53% in 2013, according to the same poll. And yet, there are 36 states that have banned gay marriage, and 4 states that allow civil unions but not marriage. And only 12 states have fully legalized same-sex marriage. Recently in Utah, according to the Wall Street Journal, same-sex marriages that happened in the past month are momentarily not recognized by the state because of a Supreme Court ruling that has frozen the marriage license, meaning that recently married same-sex couples cannot reap the benefits that state has for heterosexual marriages.  These are unfortunate statistics, but the this is only in one country. Fourteen countries in total, including Canada, have legalized it, and there are three countries that legalized it some areas. The first country to legalize it was the Netherlands in 2001. Canada legalized it in 2005. Still there are many countries that  yet to follow these fourteen countries example.

Many opposed to same-sex marriage have been using Christianity  to show why it should be legalized. But haven’t we moved passed this state of thinking when comes to law making? It’s fine to have your own personal beliefs, we’re all entitled to them,  but it does not mean that you can make legal decision based solely on Christian belief because not everyone is Christian and same-sex marriage is not considered bad in every religion. The other excuse is what it’ll change in society. But if you’re not gay, why would a law about gay couples affect you in any way? The only thing that’ll happen if gay marriage is legalized is that gay couple will get married. That’s it.  

What we’re doing here by not legalizing same-sex marriage is denying living, breathing humans the right to be legally married to the person the love most in the world, we’re taking away rights and making marriage look like a heterosexual privilege instead of a human right.