Essay The Fight For Marriage Equality

When reminiscing on her childhood, Jenny Rain could recall the injustices and skepticism that her family would face on a day-to-day basis. Jenny remembers overhearing hurtful slurs that were directed towards her and her family during one of their visits to the Virginia Beach boardwalk. The remarks that Jenny overheard people say ignited a fire in her, whereas her two dads were oblivious to the snide comments. Later in life, Jenny came to the realization that the fate of same-sex couples to be able to legally marry and parent children rested on the shoulders of those in her generation that experienced the same upbringing by gay parents as she did. In the fight for marriage equality, children like Jenny account for a huge part of the debate to show how completely ordinary the upbringing of a child in a “non-traditional” family can be (Somashekhar). Even though the Supreme Court granted same-sex couples the right to get married on June 26, 2015, they are still denied many of the basic rights that other heterosexual couples have, especially in cases that involve the couple’s children or the couple’s wish to one day have children (Chappell). The laws become very unclear when it involves same-sex couples raising or adopting children because there remains a widespread concern that children should all be raised in traditional heterosexual families. Some religions and societies claim that same-sex couples should not be allowed to parent children because they believe that a child will…