Ayana Hicks ENGL 1102 TR 3:30 2/18/14 Should Gay Marriage Be Legalized A major controversial issue currently taking

place is whether or not lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals should have the right to get married. Of course a lot of more religious people would without a doubt oppose it, but many teens and young adults see nothing wrong with the marriage of two people who are in love. Manuel Lopez, who is the author of the article, The Case Against Gay Marriage, has no oppositions toward same sex marriage. He simply has a problem with people who are in favor of it for the wrong reasons. He writes this article to inform readers of the meaning of marriage, why lesbians, gays and bisexuals want it so bad, and what it really means to them. Lopez wants his audience to know that marriage is more than just a civil union. Lopez is in fact a gay man and he is giving the reader his opinion through a LGB (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual) point of view. He makes some very interesting points about how heterosexuals feel toward same-sex marriage in his article that was published in 2005. He expresses that heterosexual or religious people feel that marriage will no longer have the same meaning if homosexuals are permitted to marry. He says, Permitting marriage between people of the same sex would make marriage a different thing... (Lopez) Many people still hold on to the fact that marriage is supposed to be a spiritual ceremony and same sex marriage will take the holiness out of it. Also, it would not be the same because they are not able to bear children the way heterosexual couples are able to. Lopez does not see this as a significant issue, which the audience

may see as a strong point of his article. Children do not have to be born in order for the marriage to be complete. Another strong point that Lopez made, which could be agreed upon by the reader, is that legalizing gay marriage can set a sense of direction for young homosexuals. This is a valid argument. Those young people are probably in a stage where they dont know if its acceptable or not to be homosexual. Especially, since gay marriage is such a current controversial topic, theyre probably torn over the thought of not being able to one day marry the one they love and desire. Lopez states that people can become unhappy when there is no guidance to go along with our desires. He also says, Our desires themselves need to be guided or informed by a view of what is good Manuel Lopez also said a few things that the reader of the audience most likely would have called weak arguments. He begins to address the concerns that people have toward gay people being adulterous or promiscuous. He comes right out and honestly agrees with this concern, which the reader definitely will not think is helpful for his argument. He also discusses his belief that the homosexual divorce rate would be substantially higher than the heterosexual rate of divorce. Adultery and divorce will become more common than they already are (Lopez, 5) He continues his argument with evidence from Sweden that says male same-sex marriages at fifty percent higher divorce rate than heterosexual couples and female same-sex marriages have 170% higher divorce rate. These facts in no way help his desire to legalize gay marriage. If anything, these few statements will turn people who were once in favor of it in the other direction.

Lopez may have lost the audience when he began to talk about polygamy, which is the practice of having more than wife or husband at the same time. He believes that if gay marriage gets legalized then polygamy might as well be accepted by society too. This weakens his essay to a point of no return. Considering that the majority of his essay was about gay marriage the reader might not understand why he chose to bring polygamy into the argument. He is supposed to be fighting for gay rights but ends up talking about an extremely different topic. The audience may see how he tried to connect the two and compare them to each other but they are still in no form related. Lopez had many detailed explanations as to why gay, lesbians and bisexuals should have the right to marry. It is such a globally controversial topic that has to be addressed. It is not yet fully socially acceptable. Not everyone is open for change. Lopez uses his essay to explain the issue from a homosexual point of view and does a very good job of this in the beginning. He uses attention grabbing examples that appeal the readers emotions. Marriage does not necessarily need to be between a man and woman. Marriage is between love and love; gender does not matter. This is what Lopez wants the reader to realize.

Works Cited
Lopez, Manuel A. "The Case against Gay Marriage." Good Society Journal. 14 (2005). Print.