Gay Marriage and Conflict Theory

In the news recently, there have been several stories regarding gay marriage and its legal, moral, and societal ramifications. Recently, California voters passed a proposition that banned same sex marriages in the state. Although many citizens of the United States feel that homosexuality is immoral, there is much less controversy over the idea of homosexual couples engaging in civil unions. In the vice presidential debates this year, both Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin voiced their beliefs in same sex couples having the right to form civil unions, but both were not in favor of gay marriage. This position is what is generally the legal standard across the country. In most of America, it is okay for same sex couples to live together, share finances, and have a civil ceremony, but if you try to call this ceremony a “marriage”, people will flip out.

The dominant ideology in our country is that marriage is the union of a man and a woman, therefore, two men or two women can not be married. The majority of the people in this country, heterosexuals, control the majority of the votes and therefore the laws. For some reason, they feel that the idea of gay marriage conflicts with their idea of marriage; that somehow Harry and Sal getting hitched in Santa Monica will somehow make the marriage of Harry and Sally less official.

Race relations have come a long way in America over the past fifty years, from
When interracial dating and marriage was outlawed, to the present when the President-Elect is the result of one of these interracial marriages. Just as with interracial dating, the people in power felt they had something to lose. That allowing blacks and whites to intermarry would overturn society and marriage as we know it. Well, we’re still standing. There are pleanty of examples of successful people from interracial relationships, and if the homosexual community fights long enough they will gain the opportunity to show that they are not so different. As long as the majority of the population act in fear of marriage being corrupted, the dominant ideology will not change.

Source:
http://www.laweekly.com/2008-02-28/news/the-marrying-kind/