Current Event

Muhammad Nameer Shamsi

Social Problem Analysis

Professor Smoot

3/6/16

Current Event

        In today’s world, same sex marriage is a very blistering debate throughout the world. Some are in favor and some oppose the idea immensely. The article I will be discussing, was published by a student from UCLA, “Why people oppose same sex marriage”. Before getting in the depth of this article, I would like to discuss material that has led to such debates. Over the last few decades, diversity has increased immensely. People are getting diverse in many aspects, the LGBT community has prospered, gay rights have become stronger and same sex marriages have become legal in many areas. This has been a major step for the LGBT community as they believe they have progressed enormously and broken barriers which were not even imagined a few decades ago. On the other hand, there are a lot of people who oppose such ideas because they believe it is unnatural. Usually such people are very conservative by nature and think such ideas are against the act of nature. In this article, the student discusses a whole new perspective to why same sex marriages are opposed by such individuals.

        According to the student, “many people believe gay men and women are more sexually promiscuous than heterosexuals, which they may fear could threaten their own marriages and their way of life”. This statement explains that the people who oppose same sex marriages are uncomfortable with the idea of casual sex and believe in traditional gender roles in which men are considered superior to women. He further comments in the study, that such sexual promiscuity are threatening to these people because it provides with more temptations to cheat on spouses. In my opinion, a person with a narrow mind, will usually think such narrow minded things. People who accept women as being equal to men probably think of sexual promiscuity as less of a threat because women do not depend on men for financial support. As I discussed in the beginning, people threatened by sexual promiscuity are more conservative when it comes to gender roles and same sex marriages. This study links sexual promiscuity in an amazing way to opposition of same sex marriages and how these ideas are interconnected.

        The researchers surveyed 523 men and 562 women, 27 percent of whom oppose same-sex marriage. The test showed that many people tend to strongly associate the concepts "gay" and "promiscuous”. Participants linked pictures and words such as promiscuous with gay couples and words such as monogamous with heterosexual couples. From this study, it was clear that people believed that gay people believe in the idea of one night stands and do not believe in faithful relationships. In the next study, researchers asked if they agree or disagree with statements such as, “Marriage is between a man and a woman. Same-sex marriage undermines the meaning of the traditional family. I oppose the legalization of same-sex marriage. I support a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Same-sex couples should have the same legal rights to get married as heterosexual couples”. Through these statement studies, the researchers were able to solidify their thesis that opposition to same sex marriages are made by people seeking to protect their marriages and are threatened by the new means of diversity in marriages.