On top of the fact that heterosexual divorces ruin the sanctity of marriage more than allowing gay people to marry, several studies also support that gay marriage does not destroy the institution. The American Anthropological Association released a statement in 2004 in retaliation of President Bush’s push for an amendment banning gay marriage, stating: “The results of more than a century of anthropological research on households, kinship relationships, and families, across cultures and through time, provide no support whatsoever for the view that either civilization or viable social orders depend upon marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution. Rather, anthropological research supports the conclusion that a vast array of family types, including families built upon same-sex partnerships, can contribute to stable and humane societies” (Statement on Marriage and the Family). Summed up, the statement essentially says Gay Marriage does not harm the institution of marriage, and that a society with a diverse amount of family types can contribute to “stable and humane” societies. All and all, marriage is a civil right. The Supreme Court case Loving vs. Virginia, which effectively ended the bans on interracial marriage (Which was nearly identical to the problems for gay couples today), established this precedent, as stated by then Chief Justice Earl Warren: “Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law”(Wikipedia Contributors, Loving). Today, gay marriage faces largely the same amount of problems that interracial marriage did in the 1960’s, especially in the fact that there is no substantial reasons not to allow it, other then the fact that it goes against your religion. Denying gay’s the right to marry goes against everything this nation has to offer in terms of freedom, and severely violates the fourteenth amendment of the United States, whose due process clause prevents “ state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness” (Wikipedia Contributors, Fourteenth Amendment). Last I checked, in the twenty four states with bans on gay marriage, there is no “fairness.” Only bigotry and hate. It is time that we, as Americans, stop with this vitriol and hatred we have against a group of citizens who just want happiness and the ability to marry the one that they love. Marriage as an institution has changed throughout the years. In ancient times, marriage was not defined on love. It was based on how much you could buy the girl for. Today, marriage is not just religious – the government uses it as a basis for benefits. Civil Unions do not grant equality – it is a shotty attempt at it. Whether you are gay, straight, a man or woman, Christian or Atheist, you would hate to be discriminated on because of something you cannot change. Love is love, be it between