Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi there my name is Noah Wolfe; this is Crash course: World History and today we're going
to talk about French Gay Marriage Laws.
As the fourteenth country to legalize gay marriage on May 18th, the first gay marriage
in France occurred on May 29th between Vincent and Bruno.This happy event has unfortunately
led to major protests from religious and conservative groups.
[crash course theme video]
The law was passed by French president Francois Hollande who said:
"I will ensure that the law applies across the whole territory, in full, and I will not
accept any disruption of these marriages."
Although we tend to think of gay rights as a recent issue, in actuality it has been around
for centuries. The first mention of same-sex unions was before the early Roman Empire and
thirteen out of fourteen of the first Roman emperors were bisexual or homosexual. Same-Sex
marriage was seen even back in the Old World like in Ancient Greece and Rome, ancient Mesopotamia
in some regions of China. In the ancient Assyrian society, homosexual love between men was not
frowned upon. In ancient Greece, same-sex love was present in the form of pederasty.
This practice continued in Hellenic Greece, where pederastic relationships became similar
to marriage since the age of the teen was was similar to the age of women when married.
Of course today, this would be considered illegal because of the gender and the age
of the spouse.
Same-sex marriage was outlawed on December 16, 342 AD by the Christian emperors Constantius
and Constans. The law reads:
"When a man marries and is about to offer himself to men in womanly fashion, what does
he wish, when sex has lost all its significance; when the crime is one which it is not profitable
to know; when Venus is changed to another form; when love is sought and not found? We
order the statuses to arise, the laws to be armed with an avenging sword, that those infamous
persons who are now, or who hereafter may be subjected to exquisite punishment (Theodosian
Code 9.7.3)"
In pre-Christian Rome and Greece, much of the public did not oppose bisexuality. When
Christianity began to be a prominent religion, it spread its belief that homosexuality was
a sin through the reigns of the Christian emperors such as Valentinian II, Theodosius,
Arcadius, and Justinian. Alike other religion of the time, Christianity promoted marriage
for procreative purposes as taught in the New Testament.
In North America, alike Europe, allowed gay marriage. In fact, according to anthropologist
Brian Gilley;
"In many tribes, individuals who entered into same-sex relationships were considered holy
and treated with utmost respect and acceptance."
Although many oppose gay marriage, 14 nations allow same-sex marriages. The Metropolitan
Community Church was the first to file the lawsuit seeking legal recognition of gay marriages.
Even though the lawsuit was not successful, and faced a lot of opposition, the U.S. today
has 12 states that allows gay marriage, and Canada has allowed it since 2005.
Time for the Open Letter
Open letter to those who believe in conservative marriages:
But first lets see what's in the secret compartment. Oh, the Holy Bible. Thanks secret compartment.
I'll be sure to read it later. Hey there, Social Conservatives.
Even though 14 countries have legalized gay marriage and a few countries have legalized
in certain states, most nations are still in debate over equal rights and freedom for
all types of love. Many of you argue that same-sex couple can't bring up each infant
as well as a "regular" couple. This is used as a reasoning to deny the same sex couples
to have joint custody over an adopted child. However, there are 153 million orphans globally
and many of them are from a man and a woman who neglected to raise the child they brought
into this world. I think a child with a parent or parents, no matter their sexuality is likely
to have a better childhood than growing up as an orphan that implants the idea of abandonment
and the feeling of being unwanted into the orphaned child throughout their life. A couple's
ability to bring a child into the world should not be the validating factor of their love.
Best witches... I said witch
Gay marriage is an extremely controversial subject, particularly among religious groups.
For most religions, homosexuality is a sin. So in their opinion, gay marriage should not
be allowed. The Catholic Church, Presbyterian Church, Muslim Church, United Methodist Church,
Southern Baptist Convention, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, National Association
of Evangelicals, and American Baptist Churches USA all oppose same-sex marriage. Other arguments
against gay marriage are that it weakens the institution of marriage and confuses children
about gender roles, and weakens marriage laws until polygamy and *** are legal.
Of course, many people agree with gay marriage because homosexuality is an accepted lifestyle
and all couples should be able to get married. Marriage provides many benefits: 1,138 federal
benefits and responsibilities, not including hundreds more offered by every state. Gay
marriage does not hurt society, and other people should not have others religious beliefs
affecting them. Not being able to get married negatively impacts gay couples because they
do not have many of the rights that other couples have. They do not have hospital visitation
rights, cannot make life or death medical decisions, are not considered a joint economic
unit and cannot have joint child custody.