Beth LambEnglish 1 HonorsMrs. TurnerMarch 9, 2014The Right to LoveMrs. Joyce Harris of PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) received an invitation to a friend's daughter's wedding. She read about what a lesbian wedding was like. She felt a lot of anguish reading and realizing that there were people very important to the young woman who would not be there because of this. Whether a person's opinion is supported by religious viewpoints or simple disgust at the idea, the country is at a standstill over same-sex marriage. Regardless of the reason for the disagreement, both sides have very strong strengths that many may find reasonable. Same-sex couples should have the same privileges as heterosexual couples. The people involved in the same-sex marriage debate all have very reasonable and valid points. A common point made by those who agree with same-sex marriage is that raising children in a home of loving same-sex parents would be more beneficial than raising children in homes full of abusive parents. As shown in Figure 1, the rate of child abuse is much higher among heterosexuals than among homosexuals. Figure 1Many people support the thesis of eliminating the sacredness of marriage by legalizing same-sex marriage. along with countries that still arranged marriages, divorce rates doubled to 50% in 2010. For many people, this argument is an outrageous assumption of something that never existed. If the legal system decided to keep same-sex marriage illegal, wouldn't it make sense to outlaw divorce in part to keep marriage as sacred as people claim it to be? In addition to the sanctity of marriage, as mentioned before, many countries still have arranged marriages. From a religious point of view, it is... middle of the paper... marriage can have many good and reasonable points, the rights of same-sex couples should be increased. As shown in Figure 3, the familiarity and agreeableness of homosexual couples is much higher than that of heterosexuals. Figure 3 The argument comes when people say that “marriage cannot and should not be redefined.” What has marriage really evolved into in recent years and who are we to tell someone they can't get married to their partner? And if the government insists on denying their rights, what happens to the couple where the wife is a punching bag for the husband? or is it only allowed to marry based on social class? What about when the color of a person's skin mattered as it has for nearly 200 years? perhaps there should be a “partnership license” for a woman who marries for money or status. Marriage has been redefined hundreds of times in the past, so why not now?