Examining the Societal and Cultural Impacts of Same-Sex Marriage

This essay examines the multifaceted societal impacts of same-sex marriage following its legalization in Australia. It begins by defining marriage and tracing the history of same-sex marriage legislation, highlighting the shift from traditional definitions to include same-sex unions. The essay delves into the challenges and effects of these changes, including emotional and financial stress, potential health issues, moral considerations, and the impact on birth rates and spiritual beliefs. The essay also explores how same-sex marriage can influence the way children are raised. The conclusion summarizes the arguments, emphasizing the need for societal harmony and respect for individual rights in the context of evolving social norms and legal frameworks. The essay uses various sources to support its arguments.

Introduction:
A marriage is defined as the unification of two individual making their association or
relationship official, public and permanent. It’s a legal, social contract where the involved
individual lived together legally sharing their economic and emotional issues. The agreement
binds the couple and have legal obligation over each other until they decide to part their ways
through divorce. After the legislation of same sex marriage act, 1961. As per the new act,
marriage is defined as “the union of two people to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered
into our life”. The amendment has put Australia as 26th nation to allow same sex marriage
(Stritof, 2017).
The history of legalizing gay marriages began nearly 20 years ago when the Netherland passed
the law in the favor of same sex marriage and recently Germany has also passed same-sex
marriage is spreading word wide but it has spread in most of the parts of the parts of the world
(Roberts, 2017). There are only 15 countries in Europe, which allows same-sex marriage.
Taiwan is the only nation in Asia which allows the non-heterosexual marriage.
The people in Australian were always in favor of same sex marriage where 57% of the people
voted in support of same-sex marriage in 2007. The support of the people has only grown over
the years. As per the report, 61.6% percent people voted in support of legalizing same-sex
marriage while 38.4% voted against it.
According to Antonio Gramsci, hegemony is the domination of the ruling class who controls and
maintain power in the capitalist society by manipulating the morals, beliefs, values, perceptions,
explanations and mores. This theory relates to the current scenario where the minority groups
like gay community faces various problems from the majority groups and vice versa which give
rise to various other problems (de Orellana, n.d.).
Although the trend to support gay marriages is increasing worldwide, there are several factors
which proves that it how same- sex marriages can affect the society.
Challenges of same sex or gay marriages
The universally accepted meaning of marriage defines it as a legal unification between individual
of different sexes i.e. man and woman where there is economic, emotional, sexual allegiance and
natural order of bearing children (Altman, 2017). But, after the legalization of same- sex
marriage, the natural order of producing children would be affected.
As most of the people value their marriages or tradition and hence it is considered as a moral
issue and changing the practice of marriage is like changing or redefining morals (How gay
marriage harms people., 2017). Additionally, from the old times marriage has marriage values
and beliefs attached to it and is widely practiced in any society. it also has many legal and moral
issues attached to it. Thus, when the laws of marriage are redefined, it changes whole society. In
other ways, it does affect the society in many ways:
a. Emotional and Financial stress:
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After the law, people from homosexual group can summon upon anyone who are discriminating
on the basis of sex. For example, if a normal couple with children are not renting their house to a
homosexual couple then they can be sued for discriminating upon sexual orientation. This can
not only put the family under legal or emotional stress but can also incur financial loss (Brinson,
2016).
b. Heath issues:
The life expectancy of a homosexual is less than that of a heterosexual couple due to heath issues
related to their life style. As per the studies, the homosexual couple spent more over their health
than a heterosexual couple. HIV AIDS is more common in same sex couple due more numbers
of sex partner. The risk of spreading HIV to other people of the society further increases due to
these practices.
c. Moral issues of the minority and majority:
The marriages of same sex couple mean forcing the moral value of the homosexual couple over
the majority or vice versa. In either of the cases the problem exists. The morals should not be
forced on anyone although there is some exception. People force morals upon people with
criminal intention by preventing them from murdering, stealing and raping, etc. Therefore, it is
not always wrong forcing morals upon others (Paavola, 2014). The issue arises as it difficult to
decide who is on the right side and who is on the wrong side but altering the moral of the society
give rise to stress.
d. Decrease in number of natural births:
The marriage of the same sex changes the biological order of the society as they can’t give birth
to their new ones. This can only happen if the marriage is between a man and woman. This
certainly affects the society as there has to be a stable growth or base to run any society or
country (Slick, n.d.).
e. Spirituality
The marriages between the same sex couple can also hurt people spiritual belief. Most of the
spiritual people do not support homosexual marriages as according to them it changes the law of
nature where the marriage should only take place between a man and woman. Therefore, forcing
the people of the society can affect them emotionally, mentally and also hurt their religious
belief.
f. Issues in raising a child
The union between the homosexual couple can totally the way, children were brought up in their
family. A union of two male couple cannot fully understand or contribute to womanhood of a
girl. Therefore, there has to be a mother who understands all the needs of her daughter
(Carmignani, 2017). Similarly, male couple or a female couple raising a male child will have
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similar kind of difficulties. The natural and best development can only happen when they have a
father and mother.
Conclusion: From the above paper, it can be concluded that after the legalization of same
sex marriages in Australia in 2017, the definition of marriage has changed. After the amendment
in law, the marriage is now the union of two people not only the union of male and woman.
Although the trend of legalizing same sex marriages is increasing around all places, it has its
negative affects too. The homosexual marriages alter the rules of the society. It hurts the
emotional and religious belief of the people who think the same sex marriages is against nature
wish. It also affects in the number of births of new children as heterosexual couple can’t
reproduce one. The children can’t get an appropriate environment if the couple is of same sex.
Lastly, all the people of the society have their right to live their life as per their will. Hence, there
should be harmony among people so that everyone can live their life peacefully.
References
Altman, D., 2017. How the same-sex marriage vote will impact on human rights and democracy. [Online]
Available at: https://theconversation.com/how-the-same-sex-marriage-vote-will-impact-on-human-
rights-and-democracy-88323
[Accessed 22 September 2018].
Anon., 2017. How gay marriage harms people. [Online]
Available at: https://creation.com/gay-marriage-harm
[Accessed 21 September 2018].
Brinson, P., 2016. The Social Imagination of Homosexuality and the Rise of Same-sex Marriage in the
United States. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, Volume 2, pp. 1-4.
Carmignani, F., 2017. What economics has to say about same-sex marriage. [Online]
Available at: https://theconversation.com/what-economics-has-to-say-about-same-sex-marriage-84592
[Accessed 22 September 2018].
de Orellana, J. C., n.d. Gramsci on Hegemony. [Online]
Available at: https://notevenpast.org/gramsci-on-hegemony/
[Accessed 24 September 2018].
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Paavola, P., 2014. Harmful effects of gay marriage in society. [Online]
Available at: http://www.pravdareport.com/society/sex/05-12-2014/129228-gay_marriage-0/
[Accessed 22 September 2018].
Roberts, M., 2017. Same-sex marriage: Three predictions for the lasting effect it will have on children.
[Online]
Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-27/three-predictions-for-effect-of-same-sex-
marriage-on-children/8986242
[Accessed 22 September 2018].
Slick, M., n.d. How could gay marriage harm anyone?. [Online]
Available at: https://carm.org/gay-marriage-harm
[Accessed 22 September 2018].
Stritof, S., 2017. Definition of Marriage. [Online]
Available at: https://www.thespruce.com/definition-of-marriage-2303011
[Accessed 22 September 2018].
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