“Gay marriage acceptance is happening in the blink of an eye.”

P. J. O’Rourke, Comedian

Advantages & Disadvantages of Gay Marriage

Gay marriages are a quite controversial topic.

While there are many arguments for the legalization of gay marriages, there are also numerous problems related to this concept.

In this article, the pros and cons of gay marriage are discussed in detail.

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Advantages of Gay Marriage

1. Equal rights for everyone
2. Prohibition of gay marriage as outdated historical construct
3. Equal benefits for all couples
4. Gay marriages are part of a modern and tolerant society
5. Cultural values changed a lot over time
6. Positive health effects for gay couples
7. Lower stress levels for self-sex couples
8. Difference between religious and legal marriage should be made
9. Can also be justified from a legal and constitutional perspective
10. May be considered as a human right
11. Can help that more orphans get adopted
12. Stigmatization of adopted children from gay couples can be avoided
13. People can live their life to its fullest
14. Prohibition of gay marriages would discriminate people
15. People do no longer have to hide their true nature
16. Many celebrities embrace the idea of gay marriage
17. Increasing number of people consider gay marriages as normal

Equal rights for everyone

One important argument for gay marriages is that everyone in our society should have equal rights to do whatever they want to do as long as they do not harm others.

This should also include marrying a partner of the same sex since other people will not have a serious downside from it.

Therefore, in order to give everyone of us the same chances and opportunities, allowing gay marriages makes quite a lot of sense.

Prohibition of gay marriage as outdated historical construct

Proponents of self-sex marriages also often claim that the prohibition of those marriages is based on rather outdated social norms.

Back then, it was quite important to have as many children as possible in order to strengthen the overall power of a country and to be able to defend against attacks from other countries.

However, in our nowadays society, there is far less need for additional children and same-sex marriage and therefore, the historical reasons why gay marriages had been prohibited in the past may be missing in our current age.

Equal benefits for all couples

As long as gay couples are not allowed to marry, they will also not get the same benefits as married couples with different sexes.

However, this can be considered to be quite unfair since all marriages should be treated as equally important, which also implies that the benefits for all sorts of couples should be similar or even equal.

Hence, allowing gay marriages can also help to improve the access to benefits for gay couples.

Gay marriages are part of a modern and tolerant society

In general, we often claim to be so tolerant in our society while in fact, many people are not tolerant at all.

There are still many minorities that are discriminated against due to their race, gender and other inherent characteristics.

Nobody should be handicapped due to those inherent characteristics and therefore, gay marriages are another step towards a more tolerant, modern and open society that embraces a variety of different lifestyles and attitudes.

Cultural values changed a lot over time

While same-sex marriages would have been unthinkable just a few centuries ago, our cultural values changed quite a lot.

In fact, people in our nowadays society often try new things, want to expand their knowledge and their experience and try to really figure out what they want to do with their lives.

Hence, gay marriage would give those people an additional tool to change the cultural values in our society even further.

Positive health effects for gay couples

Allowing gay marriages would also greatly benefit the overall health of gay people.

In fact, in our current society, many people who have an interest in the same sex have to hide their feelings since being gay is still considered to be intolerable by many people in our society.

This can lead to serious emotional conflicts, which may turn into severe mental issues in the long run.

However, by allowing gay marriages, the overall level of tolerance in our society would likely increase, which would lead to a state where gay couples could freely live their lifestyle without having to worry to get physically or mentally attacked.

In turn, chances are that this would also greatly improve their overall health state.

Lower stress levels for self-sex couples

If gay couples do no longer have to fear getting attacked by other people, chances are that also their overall stress levels will drop significantly.

In turn, these people could enjoy their lives much more without having to worry about the opinions of others too much anymore.

Difference between religious and legal marriage should be made

Opponents of gay marriages often claim that those marriages should not be allowed due to religious concerns.

However, there would be a rather simple solution to this issue.

Religious movements could still prohibit gay marriages if they think that those marriages are against the values of their religion.

However, the state could still allow gay marriages from a legal perspective.

Hence, religion and law could be separated and gay marriages could be allowed in a non-religious context.

Can also be justified from a legal and constitutional perspective

In many countries, there are constitutions in place which state that everyone in our society should have equal rights and should be able to make free decisions for his or her life.

However, the right to make free decisions should also include marrying whomever people want, independent of whether this person is of the same or of different sex.

Consequently, also from a constitutional perspective, allowing gay marriages would make quite a lot of sense.

May be considered as a human right

Apart from constitutional frameworks, gay marriages may also be considered as human right by many people.

Humans are not god and we should not dictate other people how they should live their lives.

Instead, we should give people the opportunity to marry everyone they want to in order to improve the living conditions for every one of us.

Can help that more orphans get adopted

Another advantage of allowing gay marriages is that it could also help in the context of orphanism.

Many children all over the world have to grow up without parents due to various reasons.

However, if we allow gay marriages and also give those gay couples adoption rights, more orphans could be adopted.

In turn, the overall chances of those orphans to succeed in life could be increased significantly.

Stigmatization of adopted children from gay couples can be avoided

In our current state of the world, the overall level of acceptance towards gay couples is still rather limited in many regions of our planet.

However, if we allow gay marriages in those countries, chances are that the overall acceptance in society would increase and also the social stigma towards self-sex marriages could be lowered.

In turn, also children who had been adopted by gay couples could benefit since they would have an easier time in school and in life in general.

People can live their life to its fullest

As far as we know, we only have a single life and it makes sense that we live our life to its fullest whenever we can.

It therefore makes sense to also allow gay marriages so that also gay people can do what they want in life and are not restricted by legal aspects.

Prohibition of gay marriages would discriminate people

The prohibition of gay marriages can also be considered as a form of serious discrimination.

If straight couples have the right to marry, gay couples should get similar rights as well in order to avoid any sort of discrimination.

Therefore, also from a discrimination perspective, gay marriages should be allowed to give everyone the same rights and chances.

People do no longer have to hide their true nature

Another benefit of gay marriages is that people would no longer have to hide their true nature.

In many regions all over the world, gay couples are still not tolerated in society and will not be treated well at all.

However, if governments in those countries allow same-sex marriages, chances are that the overall level of tolerance towards gay couples would increase significantly.

In turn, people could show the world who they really are instead of having to hide their true nature.

Many celebrities embrace the idea of gay marriage

There are also many celebrities out there who embrace the idea of gay marriages.

This can be quite important in order to improve tolerance towards gay marriage in our society.

People who currently are against gay marriage may change their minds if their idols speak up for the allowance of same-sex marriages and our society will become more tolerant towards alternative lifestyles in general.

Increasing number of people consider gay marriages as normal

Many people in our current society also consider gay marriages as part of the local culture.

Depending on the region, people do no longer differentiate between straight and gay couples and therefore, there may no longer be a reason to prohibit gay marriage at all.

Disadvantages of Same-Sex Marriage

1. Gay marriage may conflict with religious beliefs
2. Self-sex marriage may conflict with cultural values
3. Many people still consider it as dodgy
4. We need children to sustain our population
5. Tolerance towards gay couples is still missing
6. Opponents claim that gay marriage is against human nature
7. Gay marriage may violate certain traditions
8. Marriage may lose its importance in our society
9. Opponents of gay marriage claim that it is immoral
10. Raising kids in households with mother and father works best
11. May only be the beginning of the erosion of cultural concepts
12. Marriage should be linked to procreation
13. Not allowed in many countries yet
14. Some people rather claim to abandon the concept of marriage in general
15. Same-sex marriages can be expensive for the state
16. Acceptance towards gay couples may be lacking even if they are allowed to marry

Gay marriage may conflict with religious beliefs

Apart from the various advantages of allowing gay marriages, there are still some downsides related to this concept.

One disadvantage of gay marriage is that this concept may conflict with religious beliefs of many sorts.

For instance, in the bible, gay marriages are not considered to be the right way to live.

Many people all over the world are still quite religious and take the words of the bible and other scriptures quite seriously.

Hence, in those regions, allowing gay marriages may be quite problematic since many people would simply not tolerate this concept from a religious perspective.

Self-sex marriage may conflict with cultural values

Gay marriages may also not be in line with historical cultural values.

In fact, gay marriage was never allowed in the history of mankind and opponents of self-sex marriages often claim that we should therefore not allow it now.

If cultures have not tolerated gay marriages for thousands of years, it might make no sense to tolerate those social constructs in our current age.

Many people still consider it as dodgy

Even though the level of tolerance towards minorities and also to self-sex marriages has increased quite a lot over the past years in some regions, there are still countries where the level of tolerance regarding gay marriage is still quite low.

People who live in those regions often consider gay marriages to be dodgy and not a thing that should be officially permitted.

Hence, in many regions all over the world, gay couples may still have a hard time when it comes to marrying since the general public will still be quite skeptical about this concept.

We need children to sustain our population

Another problem of gay marriage is that the human population may drop significantly over time.

If the fraction of gay couples becomes too high, chances are that fewer children will be borne.

Even though this could be beneficial for our environment to a certain extent, it could also lead to serious problems if we don’t have sufficient children that are borne.

Therefore, opponents of gay marriages also claim that we should not allow gay marriages in order to sustain the human race.

Tolerance towards gay couples is still missing

Although we often claim that our society is quite tolerant towards minorities, the opposite is true for many countries all over the world.

In fact, everyone that deviates from the mainstream social norms and cultural values is considered to be dodgy in many countries.

Hence, also the overall tolerance towards gay couples is still rather limited in many countries and therefore, gay couples will have to wait quite a while until they will be allowed to marry, especially in more conservative parts of our world.

Opponents claim that gay marriage is against human nature

Gay marriages may also simply be against nature. In order to reproduce as a species, couples of different sexes are urgently needed.

Hence, humanity would have gone extinct if there were only gay couples around in the past.

Thus, many people also claim that marriages of people of the same sex are against nature and should be prohibited due to that.

Gay marriage may violate certain traditions

Gay marriages are also a difficult topic from a traditional perspective.

People are often quite sensitive regarding changes in our society since they fear that their traditional values and beliefs become eroded over time.

Hence, many people also do not want to accept gay marriages as part of their society since they fear to lose their historic traditional values.

Marriage may lose its importance in our society

Another downside of gay marriage is that the concept of marriage may also lose its importance in our society over time.

If everyone is allowed to marry in several different ways, the original idea of marriage may no longer make sense.

In turn, the whole concept of marriage may become outdated over time.

Opponents of gay marriage claim that it is immoral

Opponents of gay marriage also often have moral concerns.

In their opinion, only the partnership between man and woman is an acceptable one while all other forms of partnerships should be considered to be dodgy and not welcome at all.

Hence, especially in regions where this thought process is widespread, gay couples will have a quite hard time and may be discriminated in various parts of their lives.

Raising kids in households with mother and father works best

Many studies have shown that children who grew up in a household with a mother and a father have the best chances in life.

Hence, also in this regard, it may seem questionable whether gay marriages should be allowed.

If children suffer from gay marriages, it may not make sense to allow this social construct in our society.

May only be the beginning of the erosion of cultural concepts

Many people also fear that by allowing gay marriages, many other cultural values may become eroded over time as well.

Some people don’t like change at all and try to stick to their cultural attitudes quite a lot.

Those people often struggle to accept new things since they fear that their world view may be exposed as flawed and unreasonable.

Thus, in order to protect their cultural values on which they have relied on their whole lives, those people may also not accept gay marriage.

Marriage should be linked to procreation

People who are against the concept of gay marriage often also claim that marriage should be directly linked to procreation.

Since gay couples will not be able to produce children, they should also not be allowed to marry.

Not allowed in many countries yet

Even though the concept of gay marriage had been discussed in many countries all over the world, it is still not be accepted in many of those countries, both from a social as well as from a legal perspective.

Hence, there will be a quite long way to go until gay couples will get the opportunity to marry in those countries.

Some people rather claim to abandon the concept of marriage in general

Instead of prohibiting gay marriages, some people even claim that we should abandon the concept of marriage in general.

In their opinion, marriage can be considered to be a rather outdated social construct, which does not make too much sense anymore.

In fact, this is quite an interesting idea which should be discussed much more in our society.

By abandoning all sorts of marriage, we could also abandon many social stigmas and could give people a higher level of freedom regarding how they want to live their lives.

Same-sex marriages can be expensive for the state

Also from a financial perspective, the concept of allowing same-sex marriages can be considered to be rather questionable.

Allowing gay marriages could be quite costly for states since they would have to spend plenty of additional taxpayers’ money on benefits related to those marriages.

In turn, this money would be missing for other important projects.

Acceptance towards gay couples may be lacking even if they are allowed to marry

While proponents of gay marriages claim that allowing those marriages would increase the overall level of tolerance in our society, opponents claim that just allowing gay marriages would not change the general attitude of the local population towards gay marriages at all.

In fact, the general public may still not tolerate this concept from a social perspective, even if it was allowed from a legal perspective.

Top 10 Gay Marriage Pros & Cons – Summary List

Gay Marriage Pros	Gay Marriage Cons
Gay marriage can lead to higher tolerance	Many people are not yet ready for gay marriage
Allowing gay marriage can remove pressure	Gay marriage may conflict with religion
Gay marriage should be a human right	Same-sex marriage may conflict with cultures
Equal rights for everyone through gay marriage	May contradict with certain traditions
Same-sex marriage can help adoption quotas	Right to marry linked to procreation
Can also help children from gay couples	Gay marriage may be against human nature
People can live their lives to their fullest	Marriage may lose its importance
People do not have to hide their true nature	Just not allowed in many countries yet
Many celebrities also encourage gay marriage	Gay marriages can be expensive for the state
Positive health effects for gay people	May have negative effects on children

Should We Allow Gay Marriages?

The concept of gay marriage is a rather controversial topic that leads to plenty of discussions and disputes on a regular basis.

As we can see from the previous analysis, there are numerous advantages and disadvantages of same-sex marriages.

In my opinion, we should give people the freedom to do whatever they want to do with their lives.

This also includes marrying the person people want to marry, independent of the sex or other characteristics of this person.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/same-sex-marriage-global-comparisons

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/24/same-sex-marriage/

About the author

My name is Andreas and my mission is to educate people of all ages about our environmental problems and how everyone can make a contribution to mitigate these issues.

As I went to university and got my Master’s degree in Economics, I did plenty of research in the field of Development Economics.

After finishing university, I traveled around the world. From this time on, I wanted to make a contribution to ensure a livable future for the next generations in every part of our beautiful planet.

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