Bailee Sizemore Current Event Paper Humanities 1100 10am

What is equality? The event I choose to write about has to do with equality and has recently been talked about in the news. It also is has spiked huge controversy in the state of Utah. I am talking about gay marriage and the right of adoption for gay couples. As we know Utah tends to be very conservative with this it was shocking to everyone in the state when congress decided to pass gay marriage and make it legal. People of the gay and lesbian community got married that night and others protested it. The problem with this is that there were twenty four hours were gay marriage was legal but then the Supreme Court halted it and said the marriage that were preformed are no longer considered married. All it takes is one person to stand up for what they believe in. My first source for this is New York Times. The New York Times tends to be more liberal and democratic. They covered the facts that these gay couples need counseling on how to file tax returns, health insurance, and adoption. This quotes was said by gay man they interviewed for this column As remarkable and miraculous as it was, were still cognizant of the fact that this still is one of the most conservative states in the union, said Michael Ferguson.
I dont feel a sense of despair or hopelessness or anything remotely close to that. This is part of living in a civil society where we have the rule of law. This shows that even the gay community

has faith that Utah will continue to allow gay marriage. The article also states the Utah warned couples that their marriage could be dissolved, the couples were still hopeful. The article mentions the Judge Robert J. Shelby striking down Utahs ban on same sex marriage. The final decision on this care will take a lot of time. Shelby ruling stayed and social conservatives called

on the state to set the recent marriages aside and said they should never have allowed this to be granted in the first place. The article states that Mr. Reyes it is unfortunate that so many Utah Citizens have been put into this legal limbo. Utah was the eighteenth state to allow same sex marriage. The Supreme Court halted the rapid expansion of same sex marriages across the nation. Shelby is only the second federal judge to strike down a state ban on same sex marriage. My second source is CNN. I think that CNN is neither liberal nor conservative. They tend to be all over the place and have different views for each side. CNN brings up a great question in this article they ask do gays and lesbians have the same equal protection or due process right as opposite-sex couples in all 50 states to wed? I have not heard this question being asked yet. CNN also says that sometimes higher courts tend to jump to conclusions and need to let the lower court handle conservative issues. Utah is not the only state to have issues with gay marriage others states. California has had a similar problem with proposition eight. This bill was shut down and gay marriage is legal in California. Utah may seem like an unusual battleground over homosexual rights, but the level of activism and growing public support is no surprise to many in that state. This statement was in CNN and it shows that more and more people are standing up for equality. My third source is US news. This statement was in the US news article. The article interviews two young men that are in a committed relationship with each other. Their names are Derek Kitchen and Moudi Sbeity. Both of these young men were raised in very religious families and being gay was shunned. This statement was in the article, The couple has become the face of gay marriage in the state and a major reason why more than 1,000 gay and lesbian couples were able to marry after the federal judge's ruling and more may be able to legally tie the knot in the future. The reason gay marriage was even considered is because these two young men stood

up for their rights. This couple has had a hard time with filing taxes and health insurance. I think that they should be able to file taxes together and be able to get health insurance just like heterosexuals get too. My first reading I think this topic ties into is the Letter from Birmingham Jail this reading was about civil obedience and I think that gay marriage is the same kind of topic. Martin Luther King wanted people to stand up for racial equality and I think we should stand up for equality for all kinds of people whether there race, sexual orientation, age, or gender. Everyone is created equal and everyone should have the same rights. Martin Luther King wanted peace and did not want riots and chaos. People in the gay and lesbian community want the same thing. They simple want to be seen as people and not for their sexual orientation. We all want world peace essentially, but we need to make help others become knowledgeable about the issue. Martin Luther King stood up for what he thought was right and I think we are seeing more and more people doing this. The second reading that this issue is discussed is in Civil Disobedience. I think this has a lot to do with how the government is reacting to gay marriage. I think that they jumped to conclusions. I think that is injustice to not allow gay marriage and for Utah Supreme court to not recognizing the gay marriages that were performed. He also thinks that the government can be more harmful than helpful and in this case I agree with him. The Supreme Court got way involved in this issue and they had no reason too. We all have different believes and we cannot trust that our government is acting on the good of the whole society. The government does not do justice and they tend to do what they want instead of what is right. I also think that the government is too split into democratic and republican and they are too busy fighting each other rather than doing what is needed to better America. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on

gay marriage we should be spending that money on education in Utah. Utahs education is so poor that we need to pay more attention to it rather than gay marriage. To conclude, I am for gay marriage and gay adoption. I have a gay uncle and I support him no matter what. He is my family and I will not treat him different because he is gay. He is still a person and has feelings and rights. I understand other people having different beliefs from me but I think that we should not criticize them or be little them because they believe something different. I also think that the Mormon religion has a huge impact on what goes on in the state and they should have no say in this matter. I think that no one should be discriminated against for being different. I think the reason people have a hard time understanding gay marriage is because they close minded people. Many celebrities are coming out supporting the gay and lesbian community. Lady Gaga, Macklemore, Neon Trees, Ben Affleck, Demi Lovato, and Kristen Bell all support gay marriage. Kristen Bell and her fianc made a promise that they would not get married until everyone could get married. When proposition eight got shut down Kristen Bell proposed to her fianc via twitter. Macklemore wrote a song about having a gay uncle and one verse in that a piece of paper will not fix everything but it is a good place to start. I agree with him on this. A piece of paper will not fix it all but it is a good place to start for equality. I think it is great to see all the support and people becoming more aware with gay marriage. Overall we are all Americans and we all have the same constitution that states all men are created equal and we should live by this treat others like this. I hope that one day my uncle will be able to love who he wants without being discriminated for it. I live in fear every day that my uncle will be beat up for being gay. This is something that I and my family fear. I do not expect people to understand it but I do expect people to accept them.

Work Cited Page http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/us/justices-block-gay-marriage-in-utah-pendingappeal.html http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/09/politics/same-sex-utah/index.html?iref=allsearch http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2014/04/07/face-of-gay-marriage-in-utah-an-unlikelypair

This paper made me critically think and pay attention to what is happening around in the World. I think that most young adults do not care about what is going on in todays world. This made it so we had to be knowledgeable about what was going on. It made me dig deep into a subject that interests me and it made me see all points of view. This is my first year at SLCC and I have never done anything like this. This assignment helped me seek what was really going on with Gay marriage in Utah. It also helped me see the more conservative side of views. I am a liberal so it was hard for me to understand the conservative side of the issue. It was also interesting to see the couples side of the issue which most of my articles talked about. The process I took to complete this project was first I watched the news nightly for a month of head of time and I read many news articles. I went through and found the conservative side of this issue and the liberal side of this issue; I also tried to find where people that were being affected by this issue were interviewed. I wanted to see the couples point of view. Then I found the reading that I thought went with this issue and compared the issue and the reading. The strengths of my paper is the news articles that I used they were very informative and had many good facts and details. Also strengths are because I have a gay uncle this issue is a passion of mine and makes me want to inform the world about gay marriage. My weakness in my paper is the second reading I used it was harder to find exactly what was connected even though I found the connection it was not as strong connection as I would have liked. The main challenge I had was finding two readings that connected to this issue, the first reading I wanted to use was easy but the second one was a little more difficult. I just re-read all the reading and found the one I wanted. Before I took this course I did not really understand religion but now I find it interesting to know why people worship the way they do and how they worship. It changed my perspective on organized religion. It also got me out of my comfort zone by watching a foreign film. I would

never have done that but I am glad I did because I really enjoyed that show. This assignment shows progression by opening my mind to the more conservative side of this issue. It helped me understand a little bit better of what conservatives think and believe. I have improved by expanding my knowledge on issues I would not have. It also taught me a lot about me and what I think is important in the world. Our thought journals helped me realize what we need in this world and what are duties are as Americans in this world. I used critical thinking and with my assignment I had to make sure I understood what audience each news article was talking to and why. I also had to look into the small details of the issue. Overall this assignment made me use critical thinking.