In support of marriage equality

Marriage equality may be one of the most emotional issues in modern American politics, but past the emotions, the issue becomes a simple matter of civil liberties and political equality. In the United States, these civil liberties are not protected, and political equality does not exist for same-sex couples. Denying any individual the right to marry the person they love conflicts with the principles of liberty that built the ideological foundation of the United States. Equal protection under the law must extend to all people, regardless of sexual orientation.

Marriage in the modern concept cannot be considered a mere privilege. Married couples receive economic, social and civil benefits currently denied to same-sex couples. Straight women can visit their husbands in the hospital, straight men can pass off social security benefits to their wives when they pass away, straight women can sponsor their husbands for immigration and citizenship and straight men can file taxes jointly with their spouses. None of these rights are guaranteed to same-sex couples because marriage is not guaranteed.

Civil unions and domestic partnerships will never be equivalent to marriage. Very few states offer strong unions or partnerships, and even the strongest unions do not grant benefits comparable to those associated with marriage. Even if a state created civil unions identical to marriage except in name, the two would be unequal. The difference in name infers a difference in value, otherwise no separation in title would be necessary. Almost half of the United States attempted to implement a doctrine of “separate but equal” once. The practice failed then, and it will fail again if foolishly reattempted.

Marriage equality goes a step beyond allowing rights currently denied to same-sex couples. While the civil rights issue should alone warrant the passing of a marriage equality act, the positive social good of same-sex marriage further supports the position. Marriage grants many benefits — some intangible — beyond the legal code. Where it’s been possible to study this effect, it has become clear that these benefits are not necessarily available without partnerships or in other forms of partnerships. Marriage equality allows all couples to experience the stability and longevity of marriage that create better social environments. For couples looking to adopt children, this effect is especially important because it allows same-sex parents to raise their children in a more stable environment. The families of same-sex couples contribute to a positive social environment in the same way that families of straight couples do, and to deny same-sex couples the ability to create such stability is wrong.

Even public opinion cannot justify excluding same sex couples from the right to marry. The passage of Proposition 8 in California and similar initiatives elsewhere do not make the denial of rights acceptable. Our legal system exists to protect the rights of minorities from oppression by a more powerful majority. Without such safeguards, the rights of any minority group could be stripped entirely.

Possibly the worst arguments against marriage equality are the claims concerning “sanctity of marriage” and protection of opposite-sex couples’ “marriage rights.” Marriage derives its sanctity from the love and commitment two people share and is not served by denying this sanctity from anyone. Similarly, the popular claim that marriage equality can hurt straight marriages is simply preposterous. Marriage is based on a couple’s desire to enter into a permanent and exclusive relationship with one another and to have that relationship recognized by the state. A same-sex couple’s ability to do this in no way interferes with a straight couple’s ability to do the same. Allowing marriage rights to same-sex couples does not detract from the same rights granted to opposite-sex couples.

The practice of denying marriage rights to anyone cannot be justified or defended. To do so is socially impractical, politically hypocritical and wrong. The United States needs to stop denying equal protection under the law to all of its citizens and recognize the national need for the legalization of marriage equality.

Dylan Ackerman is a freshman from Los Angeles, Calif. He is the Chair of Activism of the Princeton Equality Project. He can be reached at dsackerm@princeton.edu.