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Kyle Wishard
Jan Roose
English 101
21 May 2012
Gay Marriage Assumptions
Gay marriage has always been a big issue in the United States for a long
time. The question is should gay marriage be legal? What are the reasons why gay
marriage should not be legal? And can those reasons be supported by what is right
and wrong? Everyone has their own idea of same sex marriage and since there are
no facts that state what is right and what is wrong, people make underlying
assumptions about gay marriage. Often people will support their own value
assumption which makes it difficult to compromise. People who support the most
popular belief are the ones assumed to be supporting the right decision.
M. Neil Browne and Stuart M. Keeley, What Are the Value and Descriptive
Assumptions? from A Guide to Critical Thinking said that an assumption is just a
belief that is unstated, and has supporting ideas that support the argument. They
also said arguments such as gay marriage will have an issue, an issue that can lead
to more problems. The potential consequence is most likely to happen. To win an
argument it will up to the probability of the potential consequence and the
importance to the one side of the argumentation (61).
Should same-sex marriage be allowed in this country? I believe in the
constitution because the law allows an individual to do whatever one pleases to do
as long as it does not infringe another persons right. I do not think it is the federal

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governments job to care if one person wants to be married to the same sex.
According to Eric Holder who is an Attorney General stated that there is no hard
evidence of social harm that would be caused by same sex marriage. I assume the
law does not say gay marriage is illegal, therefore same sex marriage should be
allowed in all 50 states. I assume everyone believes the rules in the constitution and
the federal has bigger issue to deal with than same-sex marriage. I do support same
sex marriage.
President Barrack Obama has been questioned a lot if he supports gay
marriage. He was asked if he supports same sex marriage and his response was, I
think same-sex couples should be able to get married (Earnest). President Obama
had reasons of his own, and he believed that people should treat others the way
you would want to be treated. I assume Obama thought this way because he
believes everyone is not being treated equally until gay marriage is legalized.
Obama said civil unions fall under the category of same-sex marriage and did not
feel the need to pursue it. Of course we assumed Obama thought gay marriage did
not fall under the category in the civil union. He also stated he did not want his
daughters to think her classmates parents whom are gay to be treated differently
(Earnest).
Mitt Romney is a traditional guy who is a republican in the presidential
election race. Mitt was asked if he supported gay marriage and he quoted, But
marriage is a special institution between a man and a woman, and our Constitution
and laws should reflect that (2012 Republican Candidates). I can only assume the
constitution does not say same-sex marriage is illegal. Mitt says he agrees with
3,000 years of recorded history over the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.
He believes marriage is an institution between man and woman only. Another one of

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his example reasons were, If you indicate as a society that you're indifferent
between a same-sex couple marrying and a heterosexual couple marrying, then it
means our schools and other institutions are going to have to indicate that there is
no difference whatsoever, and that obviously has societal consequences that are
important (2012 Republican Candidates). I assume Mitt believes that same-sex
marriage will have a negative impact to society, and he is trying to defend what he
believes is right. Clearly Mitt Romney is against same sex marriage.
Whatever makes a decision right or wrong is entirely dictated by the persons
assumption. Obama and my opinion reflected on the law because we assumed the
law tells us the difference between right and wrong. On the same note, a person
will support an assumption depending on the most popular decision because based
on another popular belief argumentum ad populum meaning if the majority
supports one side then it must be the right choice. Mitt Romney is a republican and
he is powerful because they support him. Since most republicans are opposed to
gay-marriage and Mitt surrounds himself with other republicans it is safe to assume
most republicans support his decision on same-sex marriage. To understand where
someones argument is coming from you have to understand the reasons and their
conclusions.

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2012 Republican Canidates. Mitt Romney. www.MittRomney.com. nd. Web.

May 21, 2012.
John Earnest. The White House Blog. President Obama Supports Same-Sex
Marriage. White House. May 10, 2012. Web. May 21, 2012.
Ben Johnson. Ron Paul: Personally opposed to same-sex marriage, but
LifeSiteNews.com. November 29, 2011. Web. May 21,2012.