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The argument on rights, be it human, animal, black, white or gray, is always a difficult one. One should begin by deciding who makes up these rights. Even that in itself would be difficult enough. If a group of white men made a list of rights for black men, one could say it would be biased. Fortunately on December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A set of standards for each member of the human species.
Yet, these standards are not always accepted or believed by all and are unfortunately not always enforced. One specific group discriminated against would be the gay community. People who are attracted to members of their same sex. Throughout this essay, I will do my best to take an unbiased look on the yes and no argument on whether homosexuals should have the same rights as heterosexuals.
Firstly, I will discuss the view that homosexuals should not have the same rights as heterosexuals. A large factor in having this view is the belief that God did not create homosexuals, and that homosexuality is a sin. Many religious groups interpret passages from the Bible such as? thou shall not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination? (Leviticus 18: 22) This passage would be stating that men are not to be involved with men the same as they are women. These people believe that homosexuality is a choice for people. That they find people of the same sex know how to please eachother and lose their connection with God.
An advertisement campaign was run by Coral Ridge promoting change among homosexuals. It claimed they can change with help from their faith and help from God. Anne Paul and her husband John Paul appeared in these ads as Ex-Gays. Anne grew up as a tomboy, never feeling a sexual attraction to men, and began experimenting with women. Paul?
s father left at a young age, being raised by women, and always feeling a little feminine. He also experimented with men, then becoming a male escort and cross dressing as a woman named? Candi? . Both felt that something was missing and turned to God to ask for help. Anne is quoted as saying? I was able to finally give all my relationships to God and begin the real road to healing. ?
John now chairs for Exodus International and with Anne have had children and both fulfilled their dream of having a family. Some psychiatrists, although controversial, do partake in what they call? reparative therapy? or?
conversion therapy? which is based on the idea that homosexuality is a mental disorder, and the patient can change their sexual orientation. This could bring us to the next issue on whether or not homosexuals or gay couples should be allowed to adopt children. One could argue that, if homosexuality is considered a mental disorder, these people are not fit to take care of children. Maybe this mental disorder could somehow affect their parenting and decision making skills.
Others believe that gay couples would influence their childrens sexuality. If a child, say a girl, was raised by two mothers, the young child would think this type of relationship, women with women, is natural and would then follow in this sort of relationship. Figuring out if a girl put in this situation would turn out to be gay would be a question of whether or not sexuality is learned or innate. Many homosexuals would argue that their sexuality was innate. They were born with a sexual attraction to either men or women.
Yet people of strong faith must believe that these people have learned their homosexuality since God forbade this type of behavior. God could not have created people this way. Therefore, the problem of having homosexuals raise children and encourage others to follow this type of lifestyle would lead to an increase in gay people and eventually lead to a sinful and corrupted society. An anti-gay group FRC?
s leader Robert Knight warns that America? s? man-based culture? could fall with advent of a sexual revolution brought about by gays. ? As man is reduced in stature, all hell with break loose, ? he says. ?
We? ll see a breakdown in social organization, with more drug use, more disease, more unwanted pregnancies. Your mainstreaming dysfunction. ? Anti-gay activists argue that people of the same sex should not be allowed to marry, especially in churches since God does not accept this type of intimate relationship. No state in America allows legal marriage for same sex partners.
They also believe that no homosexual has a right to enter, or will be allowed in heaven. Members of some churches and groups such as Westboro Baptist Church actively protest at funerals of homosexuals. Such as that of Mathew Shepard, the teen who was beaten to death in a hate crime against gays. They believe that these people need to repent, and protest as a sort of warning for others following this lifestyle.
The final right I will discuss is that involving discrimination in the work force. Randy Tate of the Christian Coalition met with Republican House leaders who promised to attend to the social conservative agenda. These House Republicans introduced a proposal to deny federal housing money to communities that provide benefits for unmarried domestic partners; another proposal seeks to block President Clinton? s efforts to prevent job discrimination against gay and lesbian federal employees. As well, many of these people don?
t think homosexuals should have jobs involving children since gay people are always out to recruit new gays and may have a strong influence on children. According to Knight of the FRC? there is a strong undercurrent of pedophilia in the homosexual subculture. ? In the United States only about 18 states have some sort of anti-discrimination laws based on sexual orientation.
And of those 18 only 4 states have full laws protecting public employment, accommodations, private employment, education, credit and union practices. Therefore, to conclude on the? No? side of this argument, homosexuals should not have equal rights, their sexual orientation could be called a mental disorder, they should not be allowed to adopt children or work in an environment with them because of their influence.
Also God did not create homosexuals and, consequently, they should not be allowed to marry and will not go to heaven unless they turn their lives around and repent for their sins. At this time I will discuss the view that homosexuals should have the same rights as heterosexuals. The idea that God thinks homosexuality is a sin was never written in such a straight forward nature. No where in the Bible does it say? thou shall not be a homosexual? . These are simply how people have interpreted passages from the Bible.
One such passage that people literally translate is? ? The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. So do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the realm of God. ? (I Corinthians 6: 9) One would think therefor it is quite clear homosexuality is not accepted by God. But, if one were to take a closer look they would realize this is not so.
The word? homosexual? is a composite word made the Greek term? homo? (the same) and a Latin term?
sexual? (sex). The term? homosexual? is of modern origin and was not used until about 100 years ago. There is no word in biblical Greek or Hebrew that is parallel to the word? homosexual. ?
No Bible before the Revised Standard Version in 1946 used? homosexual? in any Bible translation. Other quotes from the Bible that would contradict the religious views are?
love thy neighbor? , ? God is love? and? Accept one another, just as Christ also accepted you to the glory of God. ? (Romans 15: 1, 7) Although no one knows what part of the brain or what gene determines sexual orientation, the majority of gay and lesbians agree that they were born being attracted to one sex or the other. For example, how did you know you were attracted to men, or women. The same logic applies to homosexuals.
Evelyn Hookers landmark study in 1957 on lesbian and gay adults aided in the declassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder finally concluded in 1973. Soon after case studies began to appear in psychiatric literature in the early 1970? s. More recently has come the argument on whether or not homosexual couples are fit to be foster / parents . In the United States only 3 states are left with laws banning gay couples from becoming adoptive parents, and these laws are slowly being appealed. There is no evidence that homosexual adults are any less capable of being loving parents than heterosexual ones.
The worry of people arises in the well being on the child, involving their sexual identity, personal development, and social relationships. Research to this day is little and highly criticized yet is still s still managing to draw conclusions. More research has been done on children living in lesbian parent families than gay male parent families, but one could assume the statistics would not be far off. Studies have revealed normal development of gender identity among children of lesbian mothers. With the same result; all children in this study reported that they were happy with their gender, and that they had no wish to be a member of the opposite sex. Studies also reported that gender role behavior among children of lesbian mothers fell within typical limits for conventional sex roles.
They found no differences between children of lesbian versus heterosexual mothers in toy preferences, activities, interests, or occupational choices. In all studies, the great majority of offspring of both gay fathers and lesbian mothers described themselves as heterosexual therefore it does not suggest elevated rates of homosexuality among the offspring of lesbian or gay parents. Reports by both parents and children suggest normal development of peer relationships. As would be expected, most school-aged children reported same-sex best friends and predominantly same-sex peer groups. A personal concern of some such as Mr. Knight of the anti-gay group is that homosexuals are also more likely to be child molesters or pedophiles.
Results of work in this area reveal that the great majority of adults who perpetrate sexual abuse are male; sexual abuse of children by adult women is extremely rare and moreover, the overwhelming majority of child sexual abuse cases involve an adult male abusing a young female. Legal marriage as of yet is not allowed by same sex couples because of the church? s view on homosexuality. However 22 states in the U. S do not have laws preventing the recognition of out-of-state same-sex marriage laws, ; whereas, 28 states still do.
Gay people really do have to wonder if the United States really is the? land of the free? considering only 4 states have complete anti-discrimination laws, and 18 with discrimination based on sexual orientation. There is no proving that homosexuals cannot do a job just as well as a heterosexual.
The concern of gay people working in a child environment is an unjust one. I stated earlier the stats on child molesters, and the fact that an adults sexual preference is proven to not have an influence on a child? s. A professional such as a teacher should not be discussing their sexual relationships with children in any case. Also in many places homosexuals are banned from entering the military. Therefore, to sum up the?
Yes? side to the argument, God does not condemn homosexuality, gay people do not have a mental disorder, homosexuals in no way influence their childrens sexual preference, marriage is still illegal for gay people because of the church? s views, and that homosexuals are unjustly discriminated in the work force. Before I draw any conclusion I would just like to state some facts about homosexuality in regards to laws in Canada and the rest of the world since most of my information came from American studies and sites. In Canada gay people are allowed to be in the army, we have no sodomy laws, 8 of our provinces have anti-discrimination laws based on sexual orientation and 7 of our provinces have domestic partner laws for same sex couples. The laws change drastically in different countries around the world.
In some countries homosexuality in accepted, although, in many homosexuality is illegal, sodomy laws passed and both are enforced by jail time. Some extreme examples are in Cuba, any display of homosexuality receives jail time, in India homosexuality is punishable by life in prison, and in Iran, if two men are caught in the act of love making they have a choice of death. Either by being hanged, stoned, halved by a sword or dropped from the highest perch. Any conclusion I could draw would have to be a personal one since there is no right or wrong concerning this subject. If I were to analyze the information read and used, I would have to say that both sides have valid arguments, the Yes side a little more than the No. I would have to say that the No side was very biased.
There were no facts in their arguments, only personal opinion and interpretations. The Yes side proved to be less biased, having research being done by scientists and so forth with facts and statistics. If I had to make a decision on whether or not equal rights should be given to homosexuals I would say Yes. Based on both fact and personal opinion. During my research for this essay I cam across many religious sites that in my opinion were hurtful and ignorant. I ended up emailing with a leader from the Westboro Baptist Church (a southern church that picketed Mathew Shepard?
s funeral) and there really is no talking rationally with people who are that set in their views. They are probably an extreme side, but to compare gay people to child molesters and murderers I don? t think is fair. I personally don?
t have a strong faith in God but I don? t believe he would encourage this type of hate as they believe he would. I don? t believe sexual orientation should have anything to do with how well one does a job, or if they should be able to have a family or not. The only problem I could see with homosexuals having children is not with them raising children but with how other people deal with it. Unfortunately, some people still strongly believe these people are dangerous and would even use violence against them, which is why many who have children try to keep it fairly hidden.
Awareness definitely has to be taught and that homosexuals are people, just like the rest of us. As for marriage, I doubt it would ever be allowed any time soon in churches, but they should be allowed to be legally married. If two people are that in love with eachother and want to spend the rest of their lives together then who are we to judge. Even now gay people only account for 1 or 2 % of the population, so to think if homosexuality was accepted we would be over run by gays is silly. All I can do is hope time will pass, awareness will rise, and change will come eventually.
Free research essays on topics related to: mental disorder, based on sexual, sexual preference, sexual orientation, sexual abuse
Research essay sample on Based On Sexual Sexual Orientation
