A woman gets a call on her phone. She nods, and then turns white as she hears what the person on the other end has to say. The woman quickly hangs up, grabs her keys, and rushes out the door. Her car screeches out of the parking space; she doesn’t go below 60 miles per hour the whole way there. The car has barely rolled to a stop when she jumps out of the car and rushes into the hospital. The woman runs up to the nearest nurse and askes for the room number of the person she loves most in the world. “Are you a relative?” The nurse asks. “Yes, she’s my wife.” The woman replies. “I’m sorry; our state doesn’t recognize homosexual marriage. You’ll have to wait out here.”

This is the reality of homosexual couples across the U.S. Not being allowed to visit spouses in the hospital is only the first of many restrictions that follow not being allowed to marry . Other’s include not being allowed to go on medical leave if a loved one is sick or injured and not being able to petition for spousal immigration. People should not be denied these benefits simply because the person they love is of the same gender as them. Many reasons have been presented to the contrary, but none of these reasons stand up upon closer scrutiny.

One of the reasons presented as to why same-sex marriage should no the permitted is that gay couples cannot procreate. Those who make this argument say that heterosexual marriage is protected because straight couples produce children, and are therefore valid institutions. But consider this: when heterosexual couples apply for a marriage license, are they tested to see if they are fertile? Do they have to sign a document saying that they will conceive a child? Of course not. Not all heterosexual couples have, or can have children, just as not all same-sex couples have children. Therefore, saying same-sex marriage isn’t allowed because gay couples can’t procreate is not a valid reason to prohibit same-sex marriage.

Another reason that people protest same-sex marriage is that they believe allowing a man to marry a man, or a woman to marry a woman, will destabilize the foundation of family values. They believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, and that is the only environment in which a child can grow up unscathed. What people don’t realize is that the foundation of marriage, and, by extent, the environment in which it is acceptable for a child to grow up in, has already shifted from that “ideal” family. Some couples don’t get married before having a child together, and the percent of American children raised by a single mother was totaled at twenty-four percent during the last census. (www.childstats.gov). When people used to think of families, it was a married man and woman and their kids. But that picture is no longer realistic in today’s society. People are trying to hold us to a standard that is fading fast, and soon will no longer exist.

There has been some debate as to what kind of issue allowing same-sex marriage is. Is it a civil one, or a moral one? The answer is that it is a civil one. The definition of a civil right is, “..an enforceable right or privilege, which if interfered with by another gives rise to an action for injury…Discrimination occurs when the civil rights of an individual are denied or interfered with because of their membership in a particular group or class.” (Legal Information Institution) Gay rights are a matter of the law. Now, when people protest gay marriage, the most common argument used is that their religion condemns homosexuality. That is true; the bible does condemn homosexuality on various occasions. But legalizing same-sex marriage is a matter of the law, not religion. One of the fundamental ideals of our nation is that one religion will not be favored over another when it comes to governing our country. By using the bible as an argument, people are violating that fundamental ideal.

Marriage is about love. It is about having someone to have and to hold as long as you both shall live. It is about having a partner in life, someone you know will always be in your corner. It is not about procreation. It is not about what anyone else thinks of it, and it should not be effected by the opinion of people who will not be a part of it and on whom it will have no effect. People are most certainly allowed to publicly express their opinion, but their opinion should not be allowed to dictate the opinion of others. Almost twenty percent of the U.S. population is homosexual (smithsonian.com), and over fifty percent fully support the legalization of same-sex marriage( USA Today, ABC News). Everyone searches for someone that they want to spend the rest of their life with. It is an achievement we all strive for, and no one lucky enough to find that person should be prohibited form marrying them because the minority of the American people are uncomfortable with the idea of two people of the same sex loving each other.