“Imagine if the state or country you lived in would not allow you to marry someone you wanted to marry. Gay couples do not get the same rights as other couples and face discrimination in some societies. I think gay couples should receive the same rights as other couples.”
When One World Education Student Ambassador Charlie Nichols wrote his essay on gay marriage last year, same-sex matrimony was only legal in 17 states and many people were vocally against it. Arguments ranged from the belief that it goes against tradition, to a certainty that having a mom and dad is better for kids, to assertions that it is simply wrong. Charlie disagreed with these arguments and addressed them in his article, which is now part of the One World Reflection.
“Traditions can change over time and we can always add new traditions into old ones. For example, it used to be tradition that a white person would not marry a black person, or a Jewish person would not marry a Christian person. Now, both of those things happen all the time.
Lots of gay couples have kids, adopted or otherwise, and this isn’t exactly new. In the 17th century, King Charles I of England had both a gay father and grandfather.
As for kids being better off with a mom and dad, I have known kids who have two dads or two moms and they are really smart students and good people. In response to the polygamy argument, I ask why gay people would be any more likely to have more than one wife or husband than anyone else?
Gay marriage can’t weaken the tradition of marriage when it IS marriage. Just because it’s something new or different, it shouldn’t change the way that marriage is viewed. For all we know, gay men and women could make the tradition of marriage stronger.”
The landscape has changed tremendously since he wrote his essay and his topic has been extremely timely this fall. After an October 6 United States Supreme Court ruling, gay marriage became legal in 11 more states. A few weeks later on October 25, the federal government expanded its recognition of same-sex marriage in six more states. That means gay marriage has federal recognition in 32 states and DC.
The increased visibility of gay people has shifted the overall public opinion about gay marriage so that now more people are in favor of it, and it has influenced court rulings. Charlie wrote, “When my dad was growing up in Kentucky, he didn’t know anyone in his community who was publicly gay. For me, it’s been very different. Two of the first people to see me right after I was born were two gay friends of my family. I have gone to school with students whose parents were gay. There are many gay members of our church. And I have had teachers who were gay. This has taught me that everybody is the same, whether they are gay or not.”
One reason why the One World Program is so effective and popular is because it allows students to write about timely issues, form an opinion about them and provide evidence for their argument. We are excited to share this program with educators across the country this month at the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Annual Conference and the National Council of Teachers of English.