Gay Marriage and Adoption Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Gay Marriage and Adoption - Essay Example The major problem in the country is that the gay community feels that civil partnerships are less valued than marriages and therefore, there is need for the government to recognize their unions as marriage (Culley, 2007). However, critics argue that if this is implemented, it will redefine marriage, which according to them, is a union between a man and a woman. This paper is a critical evaluation of gay marriage and adoption in the United Kingdom. Discussion Gay marriage is a marriage which incorporates the unification of persons of the same sex. This is for example a marriage between a man and man or a woman and a woman. In the UK, this type of marriage is not recognized under the common law. Article 12 of the European convention on human rights, which the UK is party to, does not compel European countries to recognize gay marriage as a human right (Culley, 2007). This assertion has been applied in the European court of human rights while resolving disputes involving gay rights. For example, the court ruled out a case, which was presented before it by a French gay couple, Valerie Gas and Nathalie Dubois, who claimed that the denial of adoption rights by the French was discriminatory and against article 12 of the European convention on human rights (Bowater, 2012). However, the British government, with the support of the prime minister, has been consulting rigorously on the possibility of legalizing gay marriages. The ministry concerned with issues of equality in the country has made it clear than no threats or opposition will hamper efforts to ensure that these marriages are allowed by the end of 2015 (BBC, 2012). Currently, the country only recognizes civil partnerships involving same sex couples. It has been argued that this has already given these people more than enough civil liberties and therefore, the debate to legalize gay marriages is a waste of precious time, which could be spent in discussing other important issues affecting this community. However, gay couples feel that the categorization of their relationships as civil partnerships is not enough as this makes them inferior to heterosexual couples (Culley, 2007). They have the right to feel this way owing to the fact that there is a possibility of being treated unfairly whenever they indicate their marital status, for example in documents while seeking employment. Some of these documents have blank spaces in which one is supposed to fill whether he is married or in a civil partnership. This may have a direct impact on the decisions of the recruiting officers, who may be homophobic. Despite the fact that UK laws prohibit such discrimination, it may be difficult to prove that the reason a person was not hired was due to his or her sexual orientation. This may be worse in the private sector, where hiring processes are not closely monitored by government instruments. Recognizing gay marriage will definitely remove this obstacle thereby resulting to a situation where an interviewe e will only be required to state whether he is single or married. The law prohibits calling out people to identify their sexual orientation and therefore, it will be easy for victims to know what law to cite when defending their accusations (Hicks, 2008). Marriage is a union, which is founded on love and synchronization of bodily needs and desires. The move by some of