Summary
Highlights
Marriage is a fundamental personal right that benefits families and society. There are approximately 9 million gay people and 640,000 same-sex couple households in the US, many of whom are denied crucial legal and social benefits because gay marriage is not recognized.
Gay families have functioned as real families for decades, demonstrating the same capacity for love and support. Over a million children are raised by gay parents, and social science data, along with major child-welfare and psychological organizations, confirms that parental sexual orientation does not affect good parenting and supports same-sex marriage for improving children's lives.
Gay families face common problems like illness, injury, and unemployment, yet lack the indispensable social and legal protections that marriage provides. Marriage is designed to impose obligations, confer rights, and support couples in crises, offering access and care during difficult times. It fosters commitment, provides a shared language for relationships, and offers a legitimacy that civil unions and domestic partnerships cannot.
There is no evidence that allowing gay couples to marry negatively impacts heterosexual marriages. In states and countries where same-sex marriage is legal, there's been no adverse effect on marriage rates, divorce rates, or out-of-wedlock births. Massachusetts, the first state to recognize gay marriages, still has the lowest divorce rate in the country.
Telling gay people they can only marry someone of the opposite sex is a mockery of freedom, akin to telling a Catholic they must worship in a synagogue. Marriage is fundamental to forming personal relationships and families for both gay and straight individuals, and the government should not restrict their freedom to marry.