Directions: These Questions Are Based on the Accompanying Documents

question 44

Essay

Directions: These questions are based on the accompanying documents.The documents have been edited for the purpose of this exercise.
In your response you should do the following:
•State a relevant thesis that directly addresses all parts of the question.
•Support the thesis or a relevant argument with evidence from all,or all but one,of the documents.
•Incorporate analysis of all,or all but one,of the documents into your argument.
•Focus your analysis of each document on at least one of the following: intended audience,purpose,historical context,and/or point of view.
•Support your argument with analysis of historical examples outside the documents.
•Connect historical phenomena relevant to your argument to broader events or processes.
•Synthesize the elements above into a persuasive essay that extends your argument,connects it to a different historical context,or accounts for contradictory evidence on the topic.
-In the era after 1980,controversy grew about the legality and morality of gay rights.Analyze the impact of gay rights on American culture and the responses of Americans to these changes.
Document 1
Source: President Bill Clinton, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Speech, January 29, 1993

I have asked the Secretary of Defense to submit by July the 15th a draft Executive order, after full consultation with military and congressional leaders and concerned individuals outside of the Government, which would end the present policy of the exclusion from military service solely on the basis of sexual orientation and at the same time establish rigorous standards regarding sexual conduct to be applied to all military personnel.
Document 2
Source: President Barack Obama, on repeal of the Defense Of Marriage Act, June 26, 2013

I applaud the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act. This was discrimination enshrined in law. It treated loving, committed gay and lesbian couples as a separate and lesser class of people. The Supreme Court has righted that wrong, and our country is better off for it. We are a people who declared that we are all created equal – and the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. This ruling is a victory for couples who have long fought for equal treatment under the law; for children whose parents’ marriages will now be recognized, rightly, as legitimate; for families that, at long last, will get the respect and protection they deserve; and for friends and supporters who have wanted nothing more than to see their loved ones treated fairly and have worked hard to persuade their nation to change for the better.
Document 3
Source: The Defense Of Marriage Act, January 3, 1996
In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word ‘marriage’ means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word ‘spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.

Document 5
Source: Reverend Al Sharpton on gay rights, February 26, 2004

I think [it] is not an issue any more of just marriage. This is an issue of human rights. And I think it is dangerous to give states the right to deal with human rights questions. That’s how we ended up with slavery and segregation going forward a long time. I, under no circumstances, believe we ought to give states rights to gay and lesbians’ human rights. Whatever my personal feelings may be about gay and lesbian marriages, unless you are prepared to say gays and lesbians are not human beings, they should have the same constitutional right of any other human being.
Document 6
Source: Report on a protest against gay marriage, June 20, 2014
WASHINGTON—On a sweltering day in the nation's capital, around 1,500 people gathered on the National Mall with homemade signs and American flags to protest the growing momentum for same-sex marriage around the country. Speakers at the second annual March for Marriage, a rally organized by the conservative National Organization for Marriage, argued on Thursday that they will be remembered for taking a brave stand against injustice. They invoked Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln and America's resistance to the Nazis. "There is no doubt in my mind that this country would not exist had it not been for the providential hand of God," former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said to cheers and cries of "Jesus saves." "I'm also convinced that if we reject his hand of blessing, we will feel his hand of judgment."
Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), the author of a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and the only sitting member of Congress to speak at Thursday's event, urged the crowd to keep up the fight against same-sex marriage in order to prevent "damage to our families and possible damage to our children, to our culture and our society."
Document 7
Source: Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney on gay marriage, December 14, 2006
Like the vast majority of Americans, I’ve opposed same-sex marriage, but I’ve also opposed unjust discrimination against anyone, for racial or religious reasons, or for sexual preference. Americans are a tolerant, generous, and kind people. We all oppose bigotry and disparagement. But the debate over same-sex marriage is not a debate over tolerance. It is a debate about the purpose of the institution of marriage and it is a debate about activist judges who make up the law rather than interpret the law. I agree with 3,000 years of recorded history. I believe marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman and I have been rock solid in my support of traditional marriage. Marriage is first and foremost about nurturing and developing children. It’s unfortunate that those who choose to defend the institution of marriage are often demonized.

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Definitions:

Tectopulvinar Pathway

A visual processing pathway in the brain, connecting the superior colliculus with the pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus, involved in orienting the eyes towards stimuli.

Retinohypothalamic Pathway

The retinohypothalamic pathway is a part of the eye-brain connection that helps regulate the circadian rhythm by conveying light information from the retina to the hypothalamus.

Geniculostriate Pathway

The major visual pathway in the brain, which runs from the retina to the primary visual cortex via the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus.

Tectopulvinar Pathway

A pathway in the visual system that connects the superior colliculus with the pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus, involved in the processing of visual information related to motion and spatial orientation.