Friday, Feb. 20, 1998
Voice Your View
The Defense of Marriage Act, enacted in 1996, banned same-sex marriages in the United States. Last week, National Freedom to Marry Day was observed. What do you think about the issue? Should same-sex marriages be legal? Why or why not?
The following are responses to this Voice Your View question.
I believe homosexuals, gay, lesbians and bisexuals do deserve
the right to marry whomever they love and whomever they want to
be with.
Marriage is a public declaration of your love and who you want
to spend the rest of your life with. No one should have the right
to tell you that just because you love someone that is of the
same sex as you that you cannot love or be together.
The bedroom is the most private area of our lives and the public
has no right to be in there.
Kizzy Frey
sophomore-special education
I'm in support of same-sex marriages. Marriage is an expression of love and commitment, and I don't see why it's necessary to restrict certain people from having this opportunity to express their love in marriage for somebody else, when there's a lot of legal marriages that don't involve love, don't involve commitment.
These people can live states apart and have other romantic relationships
and whatnot, so I don't see why it should be restricted.
Crystal Markley
senior-agricultural and biological engineering
I believe that same-sex marriages should be legal. I believe that everyone has a right to be married if they wish, since marriage is the main way a relationship is validated by society. Everyone deserves to be validated.
Heterosexuals would raise a stink if society told them who they
could or could not marry. Why should we tell nonheterosexual people
who they should or should not marry?I believe that same-sex marriages
should be legal as an American institution, an American right.
Nancy Huenefeld
graduate-counseling psychology
I think that same-sex marriages are a degradation to the sacred institution of marriage and that they should continue to be banned.
Molly Dillemuth
freshman-division of undergraduate studies
It is disgusting to live in a country that treats me like a second-class citizen. Why does the government feel that it is a better judge of who I can marry than I am?
With the divorce rate of heterosexuals at 50 percent, I don't
see how letting people who truly love each other marry one another
will harm marriage. When kids ask their parents why people marry,
they are told when two people love each other, not when two people
feel the need to procreate. Marriage is a legal union of two people
who love each other.
I am friends with gay couples who have been together for 30 years,
but only have the legal recognition of roommates, while other
friends have gotten married after knowing each other for only
months.
This goes beyond ridiculous. Denying same-sex marriages is denying
people their civil right to choose who they want to love and marry
them. This is not a heterosexual matter.
Steve McCann
senior-human development and family studies
social educational co-director of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Student
Alliance
I believe that same-sex partnerships should be legally recognized
as marriages.
I don't understand the idea of "defense of marriage,"
which implies that marriage is somehow a limited resource or that
only a finite number of people can choose to get married. I believe
that we should have the same access to benefits as do heterosexual
persons.
Mary McClanahan
staff psychologist at the Center for Counseling and Psychological
Services
