image: where the same sex marriage is legal in the USA (http://www.freedomtomarry.org/)
Freedom to Marry
Freedom to Marry is a campaign to win marriage nationwide. It is pursuing to win the freedom to marry in more
states, growing the national majority for marriage, and ending marriage discrimination.
In five states (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and New Hampshire) and the District of Columbia the
gay couples have the right to marry and there are three more states (Maryland, Rhode Island and New York)
that have non-discrimination against marriages between same-sex couples from other states. Some other states
offer other form of marriage, e. g. civil union. With these advances, about 14% of U.S. population lives in a state
that either has the freedom to marry for gay couples or some form of civil union of gay couples. 25% lives in a
state with either marriage or a broad legal status such as civil union or partnership. 37% of the US population
(over 100 million Americans) lives in a state which provides some form of protections for gay couples
.
However, whilst there in general there shouldn't be discrimination, some forms of it can be objectively justified.
Marriage is historically seen as the means to create an appropriate environment in which children can be brought
up. As gay couples are unlikely to have children, it can be said that there is no real necessity for the right to
marry. Many of the fiscal benefits enjoyed by married couples (for example child support payments) are not for
encouraging marriages in itself, but to help the existence of the conventional, old-fashioned family.
http://www.freedomtomarry.org/states/ (retrieved December 7th 2010)
http://www.freedomtomarry.org/pages/why-marriage-matters (retrieved December 7th 2010)
http://freemarry.3cdn.net/e6df5165c2fd7943d3_yvm6idfqd.pdf (retrieved December 7th 2010)
http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-c040.html (retrieved January 4th 2011)
http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=63 (retrieved January 13th 2011
http://www.freedomtomarry.org/page/-/images/usa-marriage-map-2010-04-16.png (retrieved December 7th 2010)
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/pamela_k_taylor/2009/07/marriage_both_civil_and_religious.html (retrieves January 14th 2011)
