In my Reading and Speaking class this term, we started discussing marriage yesterday, in particular, same-sex marriage, and as the thoughtful students soon discovered when sharing ideas, there is some confusion, and disagreement as to what exactly a marriage is.
In discussing the US Supreme Court's hearing of oral arguments on the legality of same-sex marriage yesterday, the BBC News's
"US Supreme Court hears same-sex marriage arguments" (2015) reports that, just as "the nine justices appeared divided on the issue," so too were the protesters from both sides outside the court, who were giving strongly worded disagreement with their opponents, especially on religion, which some see as giving commands that must be followed and others as superstitious nonsense as true as
Harry Potter.
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| Marriage = two loving people. |
The international media seem to think that same-sex marriage is important since I got news updates on my phone from three different newspapers last night, although not the
BBC News, which does not think that US Supreme Court hearing are quite so urgent as earthquakes in Nepal. My favourite newspaper, the
New York Times, sent two updates to its breaking stories on the arguments, and I have to admit, I read them at 1:00 in the morning when I should have been sleeping. If I hadn't taken so long to finish checking my students' work I would already have been asleep and saved from the temptation to read news articles.
I'm pretty sure that the five hours sleep I ended up getting last night isn't enough. I can get by on little sleep for a couple of days, although not so well today as when I was a young uni. student many years ago, but I prefer to get seven hours. And when I noticed the time, this morning, that a couple of people sent work last night, I was also worried about them. I think it's great that we worry a bit about assigned work, but I realise that my AUA students have other commitments and can't always finish things according to my due times. And the evidence shows that getting enough sleep is important to learning!
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| Marriage = man + woman. |
Getting back to the US Supreme Court and same-sex marriage, I think that this has happened amazingly fast. When I was at uni. in Sydney, gay sex was still illegal, and although activists were fighting to change the law, none of them ever imagined that, in just a few decades, it could change so dramatically that there would be a court case whose ruling could make same-sex marriage a legal right for everyone in the US. It shows that protests and disagreement as good things for society. If people had not protested, not only such morally wrong things as anti-gay laws still be in existence, but evils such as slavery would still be making society morally bad. Thankfully, small groups of people in the past protested to fix ethically false belief and immoral practices in their societies: to end sexist laws against women, to abolish abusive child labour, to get rid for the prohibition on the drug alcohol in the US, and now the unjust, the morally wrong laws that stop gays and lesbians from marrying the people they love are being corrected and the bad influence of religion cleaned away from another area of social life.
Unfortunately, I agree with the religion people, mainly Christians in the US, that their sacred text, the
Bible, really does say that homosexuality is evil. But that does not mean that homosexuality is evil: it means that the
Bible and Christians who agree with it are morally wrong. Thankfully, the US has a strong constitution that can protect it from religion, and hopefully the nine judges of the Supreme Court will determine that the 14th amendment requires that all 50 US states recognise same-sex marriage.
I can't wait to see what they argue in their ruling, which is due in June. Sometimes my classes read US Supreme Court decisions, and this might be an interesting one to study, but it will come too late for the classes this term!
US Supreme Court hears same-sex marriage arguments. (2015, April 29).
BBC News US & Canada. Retrieved from
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32506150
I don't understand why couples, same sex or not, need to get married. I'm certain that there are financial benefits or rights entitled only for married couples. However, isn't it the commitment itself the most important thing nowadays?
ReplyDeleteI remembered there was a documentary film about marriage in different cultures around the world. While the differences are various (difference in wedding ceremony, in choosing partners, in living together), the main purpose which is common in all cultures is to announce that these 2 peoples are going to live together from now on. Today the divorce rate is so high and the marriage rate is so low. So why do we bother make a grand announcement now if we're going to divorce later?
I've often wondered the same.
DeleteProvided the law treats couples equally irrespective of the sex, does the sex of partners matter?
Five of my three brothers and four sisters have married. They are all divorced now. My sister who has had the longest relationship, including four children, has never married her boyfriend. They seem to have a perfectly healthy relationship to me. And the kids are fine with it.