Protect and extend equal rights of all our citizens
In 21st century America, its shameful that we allow gays and lesbians to be denied the same basic rights as every other citizen. Gays and lesbians are routinely denied employment and housing, unable to obtain official recognition of their life partners, and even become the victims of hate crimes. The United States has struggled with how to provide equal rights to all of its citizens -- blacks, women and the disabled, to name a few. The civil rights movement has shown us that it is often necessary and right for the federal government to step in and protect those groups. Government protection and assurance of equality under the law must extend to gays and lesbians as well. It is the only way to ensure that all citizens enjoy full human rights, and that is what American government is all about.
What Should be Done?
Enact federal legislation specifically prohibiting discrimination against gays and lesbians in employment or housing.Broaden hate crime legislation to include sexual orientation, and repeal sodomy laws for consenting adults.Require that employee benefits be offered to people with domestic partners.Provide the same rights to gay and lesbian couples that are currently only afforded to heterosexual couples -- the right to marry, adopt and receive benefits.Permit gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military.
Arguments For This Approach
Theres no justification for treating any group of people as second-class citizens simply because of their sexual orientation.Citizenship rights, including the right to marry and serve openly in the armed forces, are available only to heterosexuals. Eliminating discrimination against gays and lesbians is no different from granting voting rights to blacks in that it gives full citizenship rights to an excluded group. Society benefits when two adults make a commitment to each other, because strong long-term relationships ultimately strengthen society. The government has taken steps to strengthen such social bonds before -- including tax credits, Social Security, pension and employee benefits -- and its only fair that it offer a helping hand to nontraditional families as well.Hate crimes laws have given law enforcement a powerful tool against physical attacks on a person based on their race, ethnicity or religion, crimes which are all the more heinous because they are driven by bigotry. Its time to give gays and lesbians the same kind of hate-crime protection granted to other minorities.People once argued that it would harm military discipline for black and white soldiers to serve together. Now some make the same arguments for excluding gays from the armed forces. It was wrong to do that to blacks and its wrong to do it to gays. The military adapted to integrating blacks and women into its ranks; it can adapt to gays as well.
Arguments Against This Approach
The government should not be extending rights and benefits to people based on behavior, including sexuality. Protections for blacks, women and the disabled -- who are born with those traits -- cannot be compared with homosexuals, who can control how they act. No one else gets benefits based on behavior. If consensual sexual behavior were the standard for receiving government spousal benefits, we would therefore also have to give benefits to unmarried men and women living together. This will introduce an endless battle over whose relationship is serious enough and whose is not. Recognizing gay and lesbian unions will erode the institution of marriage. Since society began, marriage has been a sacred bond between a man and a woman, and the foundation of a stable society.Granting rights to gays and lesbians effectively sends the message that their lifestyle is condoned in our society. Many Americans have strong personal beliefs, often based on deep religious beliefs, that such behavior is unacceptable and certainly should not be encouraged.
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