Same-sex marriage is on trial yet again.
The Supreme Court of the United States will hear arguments Apr. 28 on whether states should be allowed to ban same-sex marriage.
SCOTUS should grant citizens the right to marry whomever they want regardless of their sex, especially since the majority of states in the U.S. are already allowing it.
According to Freedom to Marry, a website advocating for marriage equality, 37 states and Washington D.C. allow same-sex marriages.
Although 74 percent of the states in the U.S. allow same-sex marriages, some of the states were originally against it. Florida was an example of such a state when it had a change of heart and struck down its 2008 same-sex marriage ban last year. Other states would likely do the same, as the entire U.S. heads toward a society with more equal rights than ever.
If SCOTUS allows states to ban same-sex marriage, it would set the civil rights movement back and make it more difficult for those states to rescind the decision like Florida did.
“Preventing couples from marrying solely on the basis of their sexual orientation serves no governmental interest,” Florida judge Sarah Zabel wrote in last year’s ruling, according to MSNBC. “It serves only to hurt, to discriminate, to deprive same-sex couples and their families of equal dignity, to label and treat them as second-class citizens, and to deem them unworthy of participation in one of the fundamental institutions of our society.”
Still, some people might argue that marriage is between a man and a woman, and anything else is not a marriage. But this claim can bring up some issues. For instance, why is marriage only between a man and a woman, and who or what defines it this way?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, marriage is defined as “the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law.” But it is also defined it as “the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage.”
Even the U.S. Supreme Court sees the definition, “marriage is between a man and a woman,” as unconstitutional.
On Sept. 21, 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act was signed into law. According to section three of DOMA, “the word ‘marriage’ means 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.”
On June 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 vote that section three of DOMA is unconstitutional.
This is another example of the country’s trend toward a more equitable society.
“The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity,” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion. “By seeking to displace this protection and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others, the federal statute is in violation of the Fifth Amendment.”
Denying same-sex couples the ability to marry each other would also deny them of the benefits that opposite-sex couples receive through marriage. According to the Human Rights Campaign, a national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, family and medical leave are some of the many things that marriage brings same-sex couples.
“The Family and Medical Leave Act, [FMLA], guarantees family and medical leave to employees to care for parents, children or spouses,” according to the HRC website. “As currently interpreted, this law does not provide leave to care for a domestic partner or the domestic partner’s family member.”
People can help support marriage equality by advocating for it or volunteering for a gay rights group.
In the end, giving same-sex couples the ability to marry each other is just human decency and it is necessary in the movement to end the discrimination many couples still face.