The fight for equality amongst the gay community has been a major issue in today’s society. With having the same human rights as any American today such as: voting, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and the freedom of having a job, the right for equality needs to come to an end. Gay’s are no different than any other heterosexual couple’s relationship and should be given that right to marry wherever and whenever.

Others tend to wonder, what exactly is different about a gay or lesbian couple’s relationship compared to heterosexual couple’s relationship. Through the words of Tara Parker Hope and her New York Time piece, she has said, “gay couples have a great deal to teach everyone else about marriage and relationships”. Tara Parker Hope related her article to the Vermont study in 2000 right after the same- sex civil union act was legalized. She went on to write about the study and included: “The focus was on how the relationships were affected by common causes of marital strife like housework, sex, and money. Notably, same-sex relationships, whether between men or women, were far more egalitarian than heterosexual ones. In heterosexual couples, women did far more of the housework; men were more likely to have the financial responsibility; and men were more likely to initiate sex, while women were more likely to refuse it or to start a conversation about problems in the relationship. With same-sex couples, of course, none of these dichotomies were possible, and the partners tended to share the burdens far more equally.” As we can see the only difference here is the typical “macho” dominance a man has in a heterosexual relationship. Whereas, there is no man to the relationship or woman to the relationship, gays see themselves as one working together.

Another study was done to address the “difference” in same-sex couples and heterosexual couples, which was conducted by Robert W. Levenson, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkley. He addressed the conflict of heterosexual couples and how they fail to listen to each other’s points of views. Without communication in a relationship and not being able to listen to each other, the relationship will fail on that key note. We can conclude from the studies, that there are not much, but some differences between same-sex couples and heterosexual couples due to communication and equality between the two relationship-wise.

Then, why is gay marriage such a big controversy and what are some of the reasons for opposition behind this so-called “scandal”? There may never be a logical answer to why it is taking so long to legalize this act. Research will show that the only factors that are restraining the legalization, is it’s unethical to society and religious standards. If we were to go back in time, we could compare this to the Loving vs. Virginia case in 1967. Mildred Loving, whom was a black woman, married Richard Loving, whom was white man, and they both ended up in jail for their interracial marriage which was against the state’s law, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. After being sent to the Supreme Court, the Loving’s won their case and ended the act against interracial marriage because, the Supreme Court found the case as being unconstitutional. If we can look at this case and see how unconstitutional it is, why not compare it to the legalization of same-sex marriage? The fact that a man and woman of separate ethnicity were in love and decided to take that step to marry each other was thrown out because it was unconstitutional, America should see that the gay community want to express their commitments to one another in a marriage, as well.

May 17th, 2004 was the day that Massachusetts gave the race for equality a start and gave hope to the gay and lesbian society. With the state of Massachusetts opening up the rights for the gay community, it gave the opportunity for other states to recognize the transition and ten more