Gay marriage

At the national level, the battle over gay marriage is raging as fierce as ever. In nine states, politicians are debating same-sex marriage amendments. In Maryland, a Republican legislator is trying to impeach a judge who ruled that banning gay marriages was unconstitutional. In Hollywood, the motion picture academy wasn't quite ready to proclaim a film about gay lovers as the year's best flick.

Here at the college level, where there are no amendments or politicians, the marriage war doesn't play out with the same weight of importance, but that isn't dulling the fervor of the debate.

For gay marriage's proponents, there is a unified idea but not an agreement on all points. Shan Huang, president of UB's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Alliance, believes if gay marriages were legal, they wouldn't change the benefits of a heterosexual union, despite such fears.

"It just extends the same rights to a same-sex couple as it already exists for a heterosexual couple," Huang said. "There are roughly 400 state benefits automatically granted to married couples, that a same-sex couple would not be able to enjoy if not given the marriage status."

To Huang, the most important issues are mostly health related. Health insurance coverage for a partner or the next-of-kin status are perks same-sex partners don't receive. The right to make decisions during life-or-death emergencies, as well as automatic inheritance in a will's absence is another right Huang pointed to that is not addressed.

Matthew L. Schwartz, senior communication major, sees the marriage conflict as part of a larger civil rights issue. There are many civil rights that already belong to the gay community, he said, which are ignored by the government.

"I won't ask for a right. It's mine by birth," Schwartz said. "To that end, I'll defend, to the death, my right to have it."

Of course, for many conservatives and Republicans, marriage is "a defined relationship going back for thousands of years, and the union between one man and one woman is the foundation for the family," says Dan Hatem, president of UB's College Republicans.

Alternative lifestyles have no effect on this "basic element of society," Hatem said, but the core issue for most Republicans is the law, not homosexuality itself.

"I believe in civil unions or same-sex marriage," he said. "If you put it to a vote, I'll put it in favor of same-sex unions, but I'll not put it to a judge to arbitrarily pass laws or to make legislative decisions."

As the national issue presses on, however, the more likely it seems that gay marriage will be decided before a judge. Right now, Massachusetts is the only state that legally recognizes same-sex marriages. In 2003, the courts there ruled that denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples violated the state's equal protection clause.

If a final Supreme Court decision is ever made, it will ultimately affect over 1,000 different federal laws in which marital status is a factor.

John Reitz, youth director for the Episcopal Campus Ministry at UB, said he opposes same-sex marriage on both legal and moral grounds.

"When I look in scripture, there are clearly parts of scripture where same-sex marriage is an abomination in the eyes of God, because I believe in the words of God."

Reitz said that to him, "sin is sin," and the separation of church and state is an argument being improperly used.

"I don't know how you can separate church and state. That whole idea is convoluted," he said. "It was originally more to keep the state from telling what religions were to be religions of the state, so people are free to hold different religions."

"If you really get into it," Reitz added, "we base a lot of our moral values on the scriptures."

The Rev. Mgsr. J. Patrick Keleher of the North Campus Newman Center, a Catholic organization, didn't comment on the separation of church and state, but said there are definitely two different issues here.

"At this time, the sacrament of marriage just traditionally (has) always been between a male and a female. There are two levels, one is theological, and one is moral. The church is theological," Keleher said.

Keleher doesn't object to the legal side of marriage that's being discussed at federal levels. The Catholic Church, he said, was on one side of an issue, the sacramental issue, which is also one that is "being discussed as well."

For some, what the government ultimately decides doesn't matter.

"I will not be recognized by my state or by my country, but I will be recognized by my synagogue," said Schwartz, who is gay and Jewish. The largest Jewish denomination in America, the Union for Reform Judaism, endorses same-sex marriage. "I don't need the state to tell me what's real or what's not."

John Curr, director for the Western New York regional office of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that to his group, the argument over gay marriage is one based in civil liberties.

"It's our opinion that it's discriminatory to prohibit same-sex marriage, and it's our opinion that New York State Human Rights Law does not support discrimination against same-sex marriage, or banning same-sex marriage," Curr said.

With the wide divide between supporters and opponents, the issue has found a second fissure between whether marriage is largely a legal or moral argument.

That's why civil unions seem to be proving a good compromise for people who deserve same-sex marriage, said UB associate professor Susan Cahn of the history department.

"I think it's like a half of loaf of bread instead of the whole loaf," said Cahn, an expert on women in sports. "It's a way for people who do feel supportive of the right of individuals to express their sexuality in whatever ways they want privately, to support same-sex couples in getting some of the benefits that legal marriage gives to straight people who get married, but it still makes a distinction."

"Homosexuality is 'civilized' in a civil union," she added, "but not equal to homosexual partnerships."

Still, to some, marriage is more black and white than that.

"There's right and wrong in the world, and it's wrong," said J.C. Gannon, a freshman chemical engineering major. "Two men cannot have children, two women cannot have children. They're the point of marriage."