Gay rights essay

Up until 1970s, homosexuality was considered a severe mental illness in the USA and other countries. Thus, it was equal to a sexual deviation. However, in recent years, the number of gays and lesbians had grown so much that this social group was granted a number of civil rights. Among others, gays and lesbians are now allowed to officially get married in 11 countries of the world including the United States.

Initially, the so-called gay movement was rather modest, but soon it turned into an open propaganda of “non-traditional” views. What was the reason for such drastic changes? First, it needs to be noted that the gay movement was originated in the United States. Among others, this movement was facilitated by stress experienced by the American society for many years in a row. At first, the stress was attributed to the beginning of the World War I. In later years, the Great Depression followed by the Korean and Vietnam wars struck the country. Many people who were forced to serve in the army tried to avoid the military service. Some of them achieved this goal by means of changing the orientation as there used to be a law prohibiting gays to serve in the army.

In later years, gays started to struggle for their rights. Not all attempts proved to be successful, but today gays and lesbians do have certain rights as their status in the world society has changed. Gay movement can be considered an organization aimed at fighting for the rights of gays and lesbians. It is responsible for conducting massive acts of protest against the discrimination of gays and lesbians, seeking financial support and recruiting supporters. In fact, the issue of the rights of homosexuals is quite controversial. There are both supporters and opponents of the issue of granting rights to homosexuals.

Those who are in favor of gay rights claim that this category of people should be given more freedom. For instance, they consider that it is quite appropriate to conduct gay parades, and today such festivals are carried out in many countries of the world. It proves that gays and lesbians have been given a number of rights and freedoms. But the question of whether it is appropriate to grant homosexuals certain rights is still under discussion. Thus, in many countries of the world gays and lesbians can now officially get married, but the issue of gay marriage continues to be one of the most debatable issues nowadays.

Those who are against gay rights claim that gay marriage, for example, has changed the demographic situation throughout the world. According to statistics, such European countries as Great Britain, Spain and France suffer from low birth rates. In Italy, Germany and Austria, there can be witnessed gradual extinction of native population. For this reason, the population of these countries grows only due to the inflow of immigrants.

It should be admitted that in France and other countries, gays now have a right to adopt children. This fact had turned the social beliefs upside down. It also had a number of legal consequences, but they were in no way directed towards changing the situation. Instead, the government decided to change the words “mother” and “father” for formalized versions of “parent number one” and “parent number two” in the official documents. However, there were made no attempts to instill ethical and moral values in the society. This was greatly disapproved not only by the Church, but also by people of more traditional views. All this leads to an assumption that the debates over the issue of gay marriage, gay rights and adoption of children by gay parents are likely to continue. Hopefully, the world community will find a reasonable solution to the existing problems concerning the rights and freedoms of homosexuals.