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Same Sex Marriage: Civil Right Or Decadence?

Since the beginning of history, marriage has been one of the most important organizing principles of human society, because it is the instrument through which the first cell of the society, the family, is founded.
Because of being an inseparable part of the nature of the family, the regulation of human relationships, and because it gives stability for human society, there is little doubt that it is a suitable area for ethical analysis.
Since the nature of marriage has been changing over time, with people marrying for love and companionship rather than mere social need for reproduction, should marriage be a traditionally man-and-woman only club, or should it admit same-sex members? Even if this was not a new issue, in the United States, gay marriage entered the scene in 1996 when several gay couples from Hawaii sued for the right to marry legally. Since 1996, there has been a series of developments in the gay movement¡¦s struggle. While some gains have been obtained at the state level, the federal government has maintained an anti-gay conservative position.
The institution of gay marriage is the subject of my paper. I talk about the ethical problem of recognizing marriage, or other forms of unions, as a civil right for homosexual couples, the context in which this issue is being raised. To do so, this work will be divided into three parts. The first part provides a brief history of same-sex unions to prove that in the modern West gays and lesbians have been denied full acceptance. Taking into consideration the federal level first, the second part illustrates the legal context that gay couples face in the United States. The, I focus on the state level, and I try to point out the different opportunities provided by each state as clearly as possible. Finally, based on the impact that the various alternatives have on selected criteria, in the third part I draw a Criteria-Alternatives-Matrix to suggest the best solution to the problem.
The history...