Why Not? | Teen Ink

Why Not?

February 16, 2015
By BookLover28 BRONZE, Hartland, Wisconsin
BookLover28 BRONZE, Hartland, Wisconsin
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
I never feel lonely if I've got a book - they're like old friends. Even if you're not reading them over and over again, you know they are there. And they're part of your history. They sort of tell a story about your journey through life.


 Gay marriage rights are causing an uproar in the United States currently. Some people think it’s not right while some people do. Most of the states already allows gay marriage and there are only a few states that don’t or are still running cases about it. Most people that don’t want gay marriage to be legalized think it’s morally wrong and marriage should only be between a man and a woman. On the other hand, people who want gay marriage rights think that all people should be able to marry whoever they love and gender shouldn’t matter. There are multiple benefits to having same-sex marriage rights. They include: just over half of the population already supports it, legalizing gay marriage can help improve the economy, and same-sex parents were rated higher than heterosexual parents.


One reason that same-sex couples should be able to marry is that just over half of the population already supports gay marriage and thinks it should be legalized. An article from cnn.com, “By the numbers:Same-sex marriage”, tells us how many people actually support gay marriage rights. The article states, “55%-Americans who think it should be legal in 2014, according to the same poll.” The poll was run by Gallup Poll, who has done multiple polls on the topic of gay marriage over the years. The population of the United States is currently 316.1 million so, 55% of the total population is 178.855 million. That’s almost 179 MILLION people who support gay marriage in the US. That is a lot of people. If that many people already support same-sex marriage, why can’t gay marriage be legalized everywhere?


Another reason is that legalizing gay marriage can help improve the economy. In an article called “Gay Marriages can bring financial gain to federal, state, and local governments and can boost the economy.” from gaymarriage.procon.org, says that there could be serious financial gains from legalizing gay marriage. It talks about the Williams Institute, a law school in Los Angeles, California that has brought up the topic of gays and sexual orientation before. It states, “A 2014 series of reports also by the Williams Institute estimated that legalizing same-sex marriage would boost the economies of the 11 states studied by a total of $723 million over three years.” If gay marriage could boost the economy and help the country, why haven’t we already done it? We have the power to let same-sex couples marry but some people refuse to see how it could help our country.


The last reason that same-sex marriage should be legalized is that same-sex parents rated higher than heterosexual parents. An article from procon.org, “Gay couples make good parents” tells how they rate higher. The article says, “A study published in Pediatrics on June 7, 2010 found that children of lesbian mothers were rated higher than children of heterosexual parents in social and academic competence and had fewer social problems.” The Pediatrics magazine focuses solely on kids from the time of birth to the age of 18 where most of those social and academic problems can occur. Having same-sex parents can actually benefit kids. Same-sex couples can be just as good as parents as heterosexual couples, or even better as proven in the article. Those kids who have same-sex parents most likely won’t feel like they’re the same because their parents aren’t allowed to marry. Shouldn’t they be able to feel like they’re in a stable home where their parents are married?


    Same-sex couples should have the same rights as heterosexual couples. There are plenty of things to prove that gay marriage can be good for the country and its people. Same-sex couples should be able to feel like they are just as important as everyone else. As of 2011, 3.8% of the population was part of the LGBT community(Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender). Think about how big America’s population is, 3.8% may seem small, but it isn’t. 3.8% is nearly nine million people. Why shouldn’t all those people be able to marry? How would it make you feel if you were told that you weren’t allowed to marry the person you love? If all Americans are created equal why don’t they have equal rights?



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