Why legalize same-sex marriage and to whom they interfere
Late last week in Ireland held a referendum on the legalization of same-sex marriage. Despite the fact that Ireland is considered a conservative country with a strong influence of the Catholic Church, the vast majority of Irish people voted to amend the constitution. A step towards equalization of homosexuals in rights with heterosexuals was met with popular exultation, but the joy of the Irish was not everywhere in the world. We understand where and how they belong to same-sex couples and what is the reason for this.
Why do gay couples get married?
To answer this question, you first need to decide on the attitude towards homosexuality in general. Modern science, and in particular sexology, agrees that homosexuality is not a disease or a deviation, but a form of sexual orientation of a person, equivalent to heterosexuality and bisexuality. It cannot be "infected", it is not connected with either gender or gender, and is also caused not by upbringing and the environment, but by genetics and features of biological development, including the influence of hormonal factors. An exception is situational homosexuality - when people enter same-sex relationships based not on their sexual preferences, but on forced grounds, such as being in same-sex environments for a long time, where there is simply no partner of the opposite sex. However, homosexuals do not make them: there is even the term "heterosexual men who have sex with men."
That is why the law on “propaganda of same-sex relations” is simply absurd: it is impossible to become a homosexual under the influence of fashion or suggestion. Grades of a person’s sexual orientation are illustrated by the Kinsey scale, where zero is purely heterosexual, and 6 is exclusively homosexual. There are no exact statistics on the number of homosexuals and bisexuals in the world: data ranges from 5 to 7 percent, which in any case makes them a minority, but is not a criterion to consider them worse or better than others.
This means that gays and lesbians should have the same fundamental rights as heterosexuals (as opposed to a common misconception, they do not require any special rights for themselves), including the right to legalize their relationship. The popular position "we recognize you and do not touch, do what you want behind closed doors" - in fact, a hypocritical half-measure on the part of respecting human rights. However, marriage has not only an ethical, but also a legal side. The lack of a marriage certificate can create same-sex couples with the same difficulties as heterosexual couples, but such couples do not have the opportunity to solve them by legalizing their relationships. The main problem is that non-married partners are not considered family members from the point of view of the law and subjects of family relations.
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Humorous video ridicules popular fear that the legalization of homosexual marriage will lead to the collapse of the traditional family
In many countries, marriage gives a lot of social bonuses, and its absence - on the contrary. For example, one of the partners may not be allowed to go to another or to his child in the hospital; moreover, a formally “alien” person does not even have the right to receive information about the health of his partner in the event of an emergency. Partners are not protected by the right not to testify against their spouse, not to mention the painful issue of child custody. For example, according to Russian law, only one partner in a homosexual couple can be considered a parent, so the second social parent does not, by law, have the same rights and obligations in the matter of raising a common child. Moreover, in the event of the official parent’s death, his partner will lose to the relatives of the deceased in the custody issue.
Some questions can be closed by a civil contract or a will, but if it is not made up, the partner of the deceased will not have any rights to the inheritance. The same applies to the separation of property upon parting: if there is no corresponding paper, then all of the jointly acquired will go to the partner on whom it is issued. The inability to officially register their relationship deprives same-sex couples of a number of social benefits available to heterosexual families, for example, in the area of credit or medical insurance.
Does this mean that same-sex families will be able to have children?
The ability to have children in homosexual couples is not directly related to their right to register a marriage and is defined by law in different countries in different ways. In a number of states where same-sex marriages are prohibited, homosexual couples may still have children, but the way the couple plans to have a child can also affect this. In same-sex couples, he can be either an adopted or a native, biological child of one of the partners, conceived with the help of a donor sperm or carried by a surrogate mother. For example, in Germany, where there is a procedure for obtaining civil partnership for same-sex couples, surrogate motherhood is prohibited - however, German gay couples are now recognized as official parents of children born through surrogate motherhood abroad. In addition, there are same-sex families raising children from previous heterosexual marriages of one or both partners, so this question is more complicated than it seems.
In any case, all these situations are governed by the laws of each individual country. For example, in Germany and Portugal, one of the partners may adopt a partner’s or a foster child of his partner, and in Russia only one of the partners in a same-sex couple can legally be considered the child’s biological or foster parent. Also in Russia, formally, there are no obstacles to the adoption of children by same-sex Russian couples, but in fact they often face rejections. In addition, in 2013, a ban on adoption by same-sex foreign couples was introduced in Russia. This significantly limits the ability of orphans to be adopted, while American studies show that LGBT couples are more likely to take in a family of children with disabilities and HIV-infected.
Who opposes same-sex marriage?
The church and the conservatives are against the conclusion of same-sex marriage at the institutional level - that is, those who adhere to traditional values and often at the same time condemn homosexuality. But there are paradoxical exceptions like Republican Matt Salmon, who accepted the homosexuality of his son, but continued to oppose gay marriage. Secular conservatives tend to use their other trump cards as arguments against gay marriage: a threat to the institution of traditional family and demography. For example, representatives of the state of Utah conducted an amazing logical chain: they argued that the legalization of same-sex marriage depreciates heterosexual marriage, which will lead to an active extramarital sex life, and consequently, to a frantic increase in the number of abortions.
It is believed that most religions, especially Christianity, unanimously consider homosexuality to be a sin, and intimate relations between partners of the same sex as unnatural. This is not quite true. Hinduism recognizes the biological cause of homosexuality and does not consider it a sin at all, and the Catholic Church considers homosexual sexual intercourse to be sin, but orientation is not. Translated, this means that you can be a homosexual and not sin, restraining the urge of your flesh. In 2013, Pope Francis even appeared on the cover of the LGBT magazine The Advocate and received the title Man of the Year from the publication for urging not to marginalize homosexuals and to treat same-sex couples with more understanding. Modern Judaism has a similar position. While the Orthodox still consider homosexuality to be a sin, conservative Judaism has taken steps towards the LGBT community since the early 1990s, welcoming its involvement in religious life.
In some countries, as in Sweden, the church not only recognizes homosexuality, but also admits homosexual priests to its ranks. The Russian Orthodox Church, by the way, clearly stands on traditional positions, considering same-sex relations as "sinful damage to human nature", and also still uses the word "homosexuality" taken out of circulation, emphasizing their "unhealthy" character. Islam also considers this a sin, but in the Islamic world the legal position on the issue is not homogeneous - in a number of countries like Turkey and even Iraq homosexual relations are not considered illegal, and in Iran it is considered to be a prison or even the death penalty.
How are gay marriages in Russia?
Despite the fact that the article of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR "for chastity" was abolished in 1993, the rights of LGBT people in Russia are not very bright and there is no talk about recognizing same-sex marriages. In recent years, the state has pursued an underlined course of conservatism and the strengthening of traditional family values, in which the secular authorities and the church support each other. In particular, Vladimir Putin spoke against the legalization of homosexual marriages, opposing them to the traditional heterosexual ones, as "faith in God and in Satan."
Legislative initiatives such as the law on “banning propaganda of same-sex relations” are consonant with attitudes in society and form them - according to a poll conducted by the “Levada Center”, in Russia from 2003 to 2013 sharply alert attitude and fear towards homosexuals increased by 10% . According to the same survey, a third of Russians consider homosexuality to be a disease that needs to be treated, 16% of the population believes that homosexuals should be isolated from society, and another 5% that they should be physically destroyed. Accordingly, the attitude towards same-sex marriage is predominantly negative, and LGBT couples face pervasive prejudice and discrimination.
In a society, and not only Russian, homosexual marriages are condemned not only for political or religious reasons. For many, the problems of homosexuals are simply incomprehensible and uninteresting, since they do not concern them personally. But there is an elementary fear of otherness and the fear that homosexuality poses some kind of threat to the habitual way of life. The fight for LGBT rights is perceived by many as “imposing” homosexual values: opponents of same-sex marriage cite the unfounded argument that the goal of fighters for LGBT rights is the victory of homosexual relations over heterosexual. In addition, there is a dangerous tendency, associated with the desire to discredit homosexuality, to associate it with pedophilia: there are concerns that recognition of homosexual marriages will be followed by marriages with children and even with animals. All this has nothing to do with the real goals of the LGBT movement. The Russian-language query in Google “Why same-sex marriages are needed” shows well that a problem is often written in a conspiracy, homophobic, and propaganda manner.
Where legalized and where same-sex marriage is prohibited?
Speaking about the position of homosexuals in society, they like to refer to ancient Greece and Rome, however, same-sex relationships were not condemned and practiced in ancient China, Egypt and Mesopotamia. In Europe, the situation changed with the advent of Christianity, but in medieval Japan the tradition of brotherly love flourished among samurai and even in monasteries. In Western culture, a cohesive movement for LGBT rights began to form only in the middle of the 20th century, however, in some countries homosexual relations were decriminalized much later: Poland and Denmark were among the first (1932 and 1933), Northern Ireland joined them only 1982, Russia - in 1993 In about 75 out of 190 countries of the world homosexuality is still prohibited, and in some of them only same-sex relationships are outlawed by men. The situation does not change everywhere in the direction of greater freedoms: for example, in 2013 India was banned from banning homosexuality, canceled four years before, and the country remains predominantly homophobic.
However, even the abolition of articles "for sodomy" does not at all mean that same-sex marriages are immediately allowed in the country. Conservatives are in no hurry to give up their positions, so that public and political discussions are stretched for many years. The wave of legalization went only from the beginning of the 2000s - the first were the Dutch in 2001. Officially you can formalize your relationship in 17 countries of the world, including Spain, South Africa, Iceland, Uruguay and France, as well as in 36 of the 50 US states; in Finland, the corresponding constitutional amendment will come into force in 2017. One of the most notorious cases was the just-passed Irish referendum, where people were asked to decide for themselves whether a corresponding amendment should be made to the Irish Constitution. Meanwhile, in many countries where same-sex marriage is not yet allowed, there is an alternative for homosexuals, such as the design of a “registered partnership” or “civil union”. Worst of all, according to opinion polls in recent years, the idea of same-sex marriage is in Russia (only 5% of Russians approve of it), Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Croatia and Bulgaria. Most of the right to marry with a partner of one’s sex is supported in Holland (85%), Luxembourg (82%) and Sweden (81%).
Photo: Ivan Kaidash, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 via Shutterstock
