Complete Name of the Professor
Marriage, as traditionally defined, is a religious and legal commitment between a man and a woman. This long held traditional meaning has been recently abolished. Last June 26, 2015 marked as one of the historic dates for all Americans, particularly for the LGBT communities. The US Supreme Court in its 5-4 ruling struck down gay marriage bans as unconstitutional. Thus same sex marriage is now the law of the land in all 50 states. Further this means that rights and obligations that accompanies with marriage are now granted to same-sex couples.
This unprecedented decision, considered to be decades in the making finally puts an end to a seemingly never ending issue of the constitutionality of gay marriage bans. While the debate over its constitutionality has been settled, there has been an ongoing discussion of different views of the people all over the world as to the US Supreme Court’s ruling. To those who favored the ruling, they considered the ruling to be a landmark victory for civil rights while to those who opposed it, they considered that the ruling has nothing to do with the Constitution and simply an example of judicial activism which will likely cause harm to the body politic.
Prior to this landmark decision, there were about 13 states where same sex marriage is not legal. One of those is the state of Texas. Now despite the ruling of the Supreme Court, the Hood County Texas clerk, Katie Lang, is not going to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. This, according to her is in line with her religious convictions and her rights granted by the Constitution which is the freedom of religion. Further she pointed out that the right to same-sex marriage should peaceably coexist with other rights.
While both sides of the fence are stepping on solid grounds when it comes to their contentions, the fact remains that same-sex marriage is now the law of the lands in these 50 states. The only questions that are left to be answered are, “What now after this ruling and what will it become of America from this day forward?”
