Some people say that marriage is between a man and a woman, but we can clearly see that things are heading in a new direction. Through the powers of eliminating discrimination, lowering the divorce rate, and contributing more to the meaning of family, same-sex marriage can greatly benefit our country. America has always been the great power of freedom and justice for all—including everyone regardless of sexual orientation.

Simply, discrimination is bad. And it is still happening in our world today with not allowing homosexuals to marry. Saying that someone cannot marry the one they love is incredibly wrong and immoral. Gay hate crimes already count for 14.2% of all hate crimes. Why should we allow any latitude to increase that by showing that gay people are inferior to the rest of the nation?

It is a now known fact that gay relationships last longer than married couples. There was a study done to show that homosexuals in relationships are more likely to stay together because of equity of responsibilities. In heterosexual relationships, roles are often set as the woman doing all the work and the man doing little or visa-versa. If we look at examples of marriage, we see that the divorce rate is lower in homosexual couples than in heterosexual couples. By looking at countries that have allowed gay marriage, we can see that this is true. In Danish statistics, the gay divorce rate is only 15% and the heterosexual divorce rate is 46%. We can obviously see that giving homosexuals the right to marry wouldn’t be harmful to the country.

On the other side, people say that gay people shouldn’t have the right to get married because they can’t procreate. Should we illegalize sterile couples and elderly couples from getting married then? Another argument is that gay people will be able to adopt more freely after same-sex marriage is legalized and children are harmed by this because every child should have a mother and a father. Should we illegalize single parents then? People against same-sex marriage sometimes say that it is unnatural. People have never accepted unnatural things in the United States such as cars or air-conditioning. Now with sarcasm out of the way, it is utterly insane to believe these arguments and not say that it may come down to a case of prejudice.

The meaning of family has been a great impact on how we look at families. “Then why change that meaning?” some people ask. The answer is plain and simple: because we have done it before and it has worked in the past. Way back when interracial couples were banned, the world thought that marriage between races would never be allowed. But the idea of marriage did change and today we see interracial couples frequently. After allowing marriage between people of different races, we can see that the hostile thoughts about them are declining. That event helped eliminate some form of discriminatory. We need to continue this idea with same-sex marriage. The Supreme Court has shown that they support gay marriage and it is a “vital personal right” that is supported by the 14th Amendment.

Certainly, same-sex marriage contains vital arguments to its benefit—and the country’s for that matter. It helps eliminate discrimination, lowers the divorce rate, and helps mold the meaning of family. To include gay people in the meaning of marriage would help our society greatly. We would be helping so many people and children across the United States.