Reflection about Group Research Topic "Contemporary Conceptions of Marriage"

I chose a type a type of marriage that although it is starting to become ''common'' in our society, it is still a very controversial topic. The article I chose was about a old lesbian couple who married on June of last year, after 51 years of living together. Del Martin, 87, and Phyllis Lyon, 83, were gay activists since the mid 50's and became one of the most famous and important figures for the gay community. They even founded a hospital with their name, The Lyon Matin Health Clinic, with the purpose to attend lesbians who where not attended in other hospitals because of homophobia. Del Martin and Lyn tried to get their lisence to marry on 2004 but was denied. It was not until last year that their dream was accomplished and finally got married. Unfortunatly Del Martin died 2 months and 11 days after the wedding.
I believe that anyone, regarless of their age, sex orientation, color, etc, has equal rights and as well, the right to be happy. If their dream was always to be together and get married, why prohibit their happiness? Besides, they had been together for 51 years, that proves how pure and real their love really is. As usual, many conservative people disaprooved of the idea, but others where for them. The mayor of San Francisco wanted to give them the license but many people opposed, which is normal because people are not used to seeing these types of contemporary marriages, alothough as years pass by, more cases like this one will be seen. Not only gay marriage, but also other contemporary marriages my classmates talked about in class such as human to animal marriage or arranged marriages. Society needs to be a little bit more open minded because many things have changed and marriage is one of them, and we need to learn from other cultures so we won't act judgamental towards anyone.