Same Sex Marriage Should Be Legal - 1188 Words

The United States Supreme Court has recognized that multiple rights related to family that fall within the right to privacy and are granted significant constitutional protection. It is a matter of some dispute, however, which rights do or should fall within the contours of the right to privacy and, further, how narrowly those rights should be defined - most specifically, the topic of same sex marriage. While a copious amount of people agree that same sex marriage is no different than heterosexual marriage and should be awarded the same protection, others argue that it is an infringement upon family values, tradition, and religious sensibilities. Over the past few years, several state appellate courts have looked at whether their†¦show more content†¦A matter of some dispute includes the criteria that is used by the Court to decide which rights qualify for this raised protection and how the extent of those rights should be defined. During the 1970s, a gay rights movement, patterned in many ways after the civil rights and women’s rights movements, developed momentum as the sexual revolution spurred new social and sexual mores, which in turn prompted legislatures to repeal many state laws regulating sexuality. For instance, some 20 states, including California and Ohio, struck from the books their anti-sodomy laws. Still, by the mid-1980s, laws that prohibited certain acts between people of the same sex, and in some cases between those of the opposite sex, remained in force in 25 states. (The Constitutional Dimensions of the Same-Sex Marriage Debate) Although the legal battle over same-sex marriage is rooted, in part, in the question of whether state and federal constitutions protect a right to privacy, the word â€Å"privacy† never actually appears in the U.S. Constitution. (Shmoop Editorial Team, The Gay Marriage Debate and the Due Process Clause) However, the Constitution does recognize several rights relating to privacy. For example, the Fourth Amendment recognizes the importance of privacy interests when it stipulates that because citizens