Same-sex marriages in the United States How do most couples show the world that they are in a loving, devoted, and committed relationship? How do you express the desire to spend the rest of your life with a particular person? This normally occurs through a marriage, celebrated by a marriage, certified by a marriage license. Homosexuals are human; therefore they are capable of loving another person just like any heterosexual human being. However, homosexuals cannot obtain a marriage license. This needs to be changed. There is currently a lot of legal and cultural activity in the United States surrounding the possibility of legalizing "gay marriage." In December 1995, an ongoing legal case in Hawaii may lay the groundwork for the legal recognition of same-sex unions. Such legal initiatives, as well as efforts by lesbian and gay couples to be recognized as such, face denunciation from some conservative voices who claim that by nature and divine will only relationships between men and women can be considered "natural." And, to tell the truth, there is also a discomfort expressed by some lesbian and gay activists who, recalling the criticism of patriarchy advanced by 1970s feminism, see "marriage" as an irremediably heterosexual institution. Same-sex marriages should be legal everywhere in the world. United States of America. Under the Constitution, marriage is a civil right that all Americans are born with. Our country decided, by passing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996, that two people of the same sex cannot marry. By taking away this fundamental civil right, America has challenged what our Founding Fathers founded about our country: freedom. Homosexuals are allowed to speak freely, carry guns, have privacy, be... middle of paper... the worst everyday social problem for the openly gay person. Many people would not hire a gay person thinking that he or she might disrupt the peace in the office or cause a lot of problems and tensions among the people who work there. The way most of our society views sexuality is that anything beyond being heterosexual is wrong. Marriage is both a religious and civil institution, with rich variations among different religions in this country. Civil marriage is regulated by the state and is independent of religious practice, a distinction that reflects the fundamental American value of separation of church and state. This distinction is also at the heart of this publication, which provides resources and inspiration for people from faith communities who wish to support the nationwide fight to help lesbians and gay men gain the freedom to enter into civil marriages...