The Morality Of Same Sex Marriage - 2166 Words

The morality of same-sex marriage is a major controversial issue in the United States today. While Liberals believe that marriage should be the union of two people who love each other and that it should be legal for gay and lesbian individuals in order to ensure equal rights for all citizens, Conservatives believe that marriage is the union of one woman and one man only and that requiring citizens to sanction same-sex relationships violates moral and religious beliefs. Taking opposing viewpoints of this issue are both philosophers David Boonin and Jeff Jordan who discuss the public dilemma of same-sex marriage within their articles. Through the use of counterarguments to the premises made by Jeff Jordan, as well as by discussing various†¦show more content†¦After providing a set of premises as to why one would hold the parity thesis- which states that homosexuality has the same moral status as heterosexuality- true; Jordan attacks these claims by objecting to the first premise which states that homosexual acts between consenting adults do not harm anyone, and the fourth which explains that discrimination against homosexuals removes individual freedom as it ignores personal choice and privacy [Jordan 2]. He states that these premises are only plausible when these acts are done in private, concluding that one should only be able to discriminate homosexual behavior if it is done in public. This premise is an assumption made by Jordan that unlike homosexual acts, people enjoy viewing heterosexual acts that are displayed publically. This premise assumes that the majority of society accepts viewing heterosexu al behavior in public, but are uncomfortable with viewing public homosexual acts. To set up his argument in support of the Difference Thesis, Jordan creates a scenario in which one person believes that subject â€Å"X† is morally wrong but another person believes it is morally permissible, calling this conflict an â€Å"impasse† (Jordan 42). He continues to define â€Å"public dilemma† as special case impasses and