Same Sex Marriage

Same sex marriage and its place in the contemporary society
The political opinion shapers and other leading figures in several areas and disciplines often elicit debate over the concept of same sex marriage, whether this kind of arrangement is a socially acceptable practice and whether it should be granted the legal recognition and implementation in the contemporary society. The next dilemma that bedevils this topic is whether, say the same sex marriage is legally recognized, it should be given the priorities, privileges and social provisions that are granted for the traditional heterosexual marriages. There are glaring lacunas in the same sex marriage push that, in guarded opinion, will need a number of decades of extensive sensitization and social acceptance to bring it to the same level as the heterosexual marriages.
How then is the same sex marriage anchored in the minds and social groupings that advocate for it? The proponents of same sex marriage often have a theoretical argument that is based on the legalistic perspective. They present marriage as a package of legal rights benefits and obligations like the issues of visitations in the hospital, medical covers, citizenship, and immigration rights among other aspects. They view marriage as an institution of basic condition of justice. These proponents look at the legal equality and the parity of the women and the men who opt for the same sex partner for long term relationship. They feel that by so providing the legal framework recognizing same sex marriage, then it will make this a normal social practice like the heterosexual marriages, this is a misconstrued argument and perspective.
There are however those who sternly oppose the idea of same sex marriage as currently presented or proposed for adoption. These opposing groups come in two categories, the first being one that can be considered superficial in their approach. This group bases its arguments on the religious beliefs and teachings. It indicates that the Christian or the Islamic or whichever religion does not approve of the same sex marriage and any kind of gay marriage, but upholds the heterosexual marriage. This is not only superficial but lopsided in that it presumes that before a person is social he is first religious. This belief that every person is either religious or must adhere to the prescriptions given by religious teachings fails to address the basics of what qualities define marriage and the benefits of marriage.
The second group that opposes same sex marriage dismisses the legalistic approach of marriage since it ignores the most important aspect of marriage which is the social aspect. This argument is a more profound and sound approach to the institution of marriage since it presents marriage as a traditional way of life that has some social meaning. The social meaning ingrained in marriage include the shared understanding, shared expectorations and socially agreed upon roles that have been shaped and shared over centuries. These are social aspects that even a young child will definitely understand and subscribe to. This is not to say that the law has no place in the perspective and safeguarding marriage, indeed the law helps in reinforcing and supports the social meaning to marriage, but it is not the upon the law that marriage is conceived.
Therefore, as Wedgwood R. (2012) opines, “marriage is indeed fundamentally a traditional way of life imbued with social meaning, held in place by law.” In this traditional social concept, those involved in the marriage implicitly convey the message that the society can then start looking at them with the perspective of fulfilling the social expectations in marriage like procreation, dealing with economic and domestic necessities of life including raising children. It is a social arrangement that one gets into with a long term commitment to keep the relationship alive. This definition of marriage is not to say that the social meaning of marriage is and will remain static, indeed some decades back marriage was seen as a union of two or more with the man being the superior of the women in the marriage. This no longer hold in most developed cultures and the partners are equal and treat each other a equals.

References
Wedgwood R. (2012). The meaning of Same sex Marriage. The New York Times. Retrieved April 26, 2018 from https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/24/marriage-meaning-and-equality/