American Military University
SOCI111
Dr. Virginia Merlini
What is wrong with marrying the person you are in love with? According to many, the person that you spend the rest of your life with and share your bed with has to be of the opposite sex. Unfortunately many people are raised thinking that same sex relationships are wrong. For many years the government has agreed with the homophobic population instead of seeing it from and unbiased point of view. Luckily for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, many states have come to open their eyes and see that you should be able to commit yourself and your life to the person you belong with, no matter their gender. In Pennsylvania, Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said the governor Jim Corbett "did the right thing in not standing in the way of thousands of loving couples' ability to make life-long commitments to each other through marriage. Breaking down this dark wall of discrimination in the Keystone State strengthens our ever-growing momentum as we continue to expand the marriage equality map." Imagine not being able to marry the person you are madly in love with because of a law and other peoples disapproval, how would you feel? The 1996 federal law that states that a marriage as a union between a man and a woman is something that should be abolished. “… all couples deserve equal dignity in the realm of civil marriage” says Jones. For most people it seems that same sex marriages are a relatively new concept that they struggle to grasp but when Columbus landed in the Americas, some Native American tribes already had same-sex marriages (Henslin 452). Through a ceremony called the berdache, a man or woman who wanted to be a member of the opposite sex was officially declared to have his or her sex changed. The “new” man or woman put on the clothing and performed the tasks associated with his or her new sex, and was allowed to marry (Henslin 452). It is crazy to think that drag shows and medical sex changes are frowned upon by society but Native Americans can easily embrace those with open arms.
There are many different societies all around the world that have different customs when it comes to marriage. The Nayar of Malabar never allow a bride and groom to have sex. After a three-day celebration of the marriage, they send the groom packing—and never allow him to see his bride again (La Barre 1954). This can be a little puzzling to figure out, but it works like this: The groom is “borrowed” from another tribe for the ceremony. Although the Nayar bride can’t have sex with her husband, after the wedding, she can have approved lovers from her tribe. This system keeps family property intact—along