http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiA5J9yQm6A
The question of whether gay and lesbian couples should be granted the right to marry is, at the time of this writing, hotly debated in the U.S. Some judges have ruled that prohibitions against gay marriage violate legal protections against unequal treatment on the basis of a person’s gender. As a result gay marriages are being performed in the state of Massachusetts. Legislators there and in several other states are attempting to modify their state constitutions to preclude gay marriages.
This creates complications arising from the “full faith and credit” clause of the U.S. Constitution, which some legal scholars believe requires that marriages recognized in one state must be treated as valid in all states. Thus, some politicians are proposing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
Proponents of gay marriage believe that it is a question of fairness, while opponents believe that marriage is a special institution that should be reserved for its traditional members. Regardless of the legal outcome, the reality is that millions of American children are being raised by gay or lesbian parents. These children are often at the center of these controversies. Opponents of gay marriage suggest that children of gay parents are harmed, while proponents say that the harm stems strictly from the dis-crimination their parents face without legal recognition of their relation-ships as marriages. Few states permit gay couples to jointly adopt children but will permit one partner of a gay couple to do so (in the same way that a single parent can often adopt a child). A gay person may have custody of a child from a previous heterosexual relationship, or in the case of lesbian couples, one partner may bear a child with help from a sperm donor. In all these scenarios, only the legal parent (either biological or adoptive) has custody. For example, when a child is hurt, the hospital may recognize the right of only the legal parent to approve treatment. Similarly, a gay co-parent is unable to intervene at school, meaning that the child and teacher must wait until the legal parent is available. This is especially problematic when the legal parent is working and the co-parent is a full-time mom (or dad). This is more often the case than the other way around, because it is easier to obtain employer-subsidized insurance for one’s legal child than it is for one’s partner’s child. Of course, children of gay couples can also face prejudice from teachers and other adults, as well as from their friends.
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