Nguyen An Quynh - BA K63 - 11215084

Do you against Same-sex marriage? Which ethical theories that you apply to support your
opinion.
I support same - sex marriage.
Utilitarianism as a theory in ethics, proposes that the correct course of action is the one that
exploits usefulness. Particularly actions that maximize peace and happiness while reducing
distress. If we refer to Utilitarianism, homosexuality would only be unacceptable to the society if
the act in some way caused more harm than good. Therefore, Utilitarianism ideologists tend to
present gay marriages as okay as long as the marriages do not affect the society. Same-sex
marriage does not have a negative impact on society, it brings happiness to third-sex people,
making them feel accepted and happy. On the contrary, if same-sex marriage is opposed, it will
firstly affect the morale of people of the third gender, causing them to reconsider their own
existence: their gender is considered correct when their gender, which they were not given the
right to decide from birth, is considered illegal. In addition, if same-sex marriage is not legalized,
people of the third gender will have 2 options, one is to continue living together but not having a
marriage relationship, or get married with another people who have opposite sex but no
affection, these 2 options, in the best case, will not bring bad effects to the insiders.
A deontologist’s view of gay marriage is almost similar to Utilitarianism view since they both
base their ideologies on the decisions of an individual over those of the society. Utilitarianism
and Deontology have a structured belief or view on gay marriages. Deontology, as earlier
mentioned in the paper, relates to moral obligation and need, deontologists believe that a gay
couple seeks to get married because they believe it is the correct thing to do. They do not look
deeper into their actions or think of the possible consequences of their actions. If we consider the
Virtue ethics theory, we find that a gay marriage would only be immoral if the purpose of being
gay was immoral.
A philosopher by the name Immanuel Kant is deontology theorist who has been widely studied
over the years. In his theory, the philosopher stated that actions are morally wrong if they are not
in agreement or contradicting with the status of a person as a free thinking, correct and normal
human being. This makes one assume that gay marriage is morally right and accepted in the
society. This is because it advances the status of a person as a free thinking, correct and normal
human being. This maximizes and satisfies good results, happiness, and equal rights. To contrast
the two theories (utilitarianism and deontology), we can say that utilitarianism view on gay
marriage is that the couples make their decisions believing the results will be beneficial for larger
proportion of people. A deontologist view is that gay people make their decisions with the
knowledge that whatever they are doing respects life, equality, and honesty without considering
consequences of their actions, especially the effects on the society.