Legalisation of Same Sex Marriage in American Samoa: The Survey

Should we legalize same sex marriage in American Samoa?

On June 26, 2015, the U.S Supreme Court officially legalized the same sex marriage within the fifty states of the Unite States. Here in American Samoa, same sex marriage is not currently legalized. Most disagree about same sex marriage because they believe that marriage is between man and woman, but not between the same genders. Others said that same sex marriage is based on decisions and choices, or how people feel about each other, and most people tend to ignore it because they believe it will affect their religion, and culture. The question is, should we legalize same sex marriage here in American Samoa? The reason why I chose this topic is to hear from other people’s opinions, and how would they react to the topic. My hypothesis is that people will disagree about the fact that same sex marriage should not be legalize in American Samoa because it will affect our religion and culture. So basically my research paper is about finding out what our local people think about the topic, and what are their opinion about the situation.

Review Literature

The main focus of my research is to find out what people would think about legalizing same sex marriage within our local community. Another purpose of my research paper, is to gather information about what other people would think about the topic. The reason why I chose this topic, I am interested to find out what other people would react about same sex marriage to be legalized in American Samoa. Same sex marriage is not currently a law here in our community, but I am interested on finding out what are their opinions or perspective about the topic. Same sex marriage was legalized within the fifty state of the United State of America on June 26, 2015. it was officially passed from the supreme court, and it is now a law. Same sex marriage is a right given to the same gender to marry, but a lot of people did not agree with the fact that same gender have the right to marry each other, because they believe that marriage is between men and women, not between the same gender.

Formulate Hypothesis

My hypothesis is that people will not agree to legalize same sex marriage in American Samoa, because they believe it will affect our religion and culture. In order for me to prove my hypothesis, I will collect all the data and information to see if my hypothesis is right or wrong.

Research design

The research design that I will be using is both survey and interview method. The reason why because it will make it easy to collect the data I need for my research, and information concerning my topic.

Introduction

The reason why I chose this topic is because I am interesting of finding out what people of American Samoa would think about legalizing same sex marriage within our community. Basically American Samoa has a strong belief in culture, family, and religion. This belief has been over years, and still does not changed. Same sex marriage is defined as the bond between shared by the same gender, instead of the opposite sex. The same sex marriage case was legalize within the fifty state of the United States on June 26, 2015, which than became the official law that gave the same gender the right to marry and start their new family.

According to timeline, same sex marriage was passed way back in American history. Most people have different opinions regarding this case, because they are protecting their religious belief, and culture. Some people agree about same sex marriage, but others do not because of their personal reasons. People clearly think that same sex marriage is a sin against religion, and it must be stopped. Well everything is based on decisions and choices, but the main focus is how would our local community feel or react about it. The question is, what would our people feel about the situation? To me, I disagree about legalizing same sex marriage in our community because my reasons are based on culture and religion.

I believe that most of our people would feel the same because we have a strong belief on our culture and religion which we would not let anything happen to ruin our reputation as a Samoan citizen. As of religion, our people believed on what is stated in the bible, “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”, which basically means that men and women meant to be together, not between the same gender. This is one reason why people would not agree to same sex marriage to be legal, because our people have a strong belief in Religion.

What is culture? Culture is the arts and other manifestation of human intellectual achievement collectively, and the achievements of a particular nation, people, and other social groups. Samoan culture is very important to its people, because it is what defines them as Samoan, and their heritage. It is where our destiny lies, and defines who we are. My own perspective, our people will not agree to legalize same sex marriage within our local community, because culture is one of the important source within its people. Culture is one of the things that our people value the most since the beginning. i believe that when American Samoa officially legalize the same sex marriage within our community, will take away our responsibility that we should protect our culture.

This case is still debatable, because people have their own decision to make. According to the Samoa news on July 10, 2015, there has been a bit of argument on whether American Samoa should legalize same sex marriage. People often asked question on when we should adopt this law, and make it official. But because of the strong belief of our people in its culture, is the reason why their decision has not yet been decided. Our territory, however, has a tradition of embracing “fafafine”, usually means that males are raised as females and take on feminine traits. Many of them took the leading figure of Princess Auva’a, which they do not actively support gay marriage out of respect for our Samoan culture and religious beliefs. The article mainly supports of fafaine’s perspective concerning the same sex marriage, and it should become a law, because they believe that everyone should be treated equally.

Another reason why people will not agree to legalize same sex marriage, is because of their religious belief. Our local community has a strong belief in religion, and consider ourselves as Christian. There is this one meme on Facebook, that stated, “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” This is one reason why people will not agree to legalize this process, because they believe it will affect their religious beliefs. Another reason why, is because they think that same sex marriage is a sin against religion and God.

Most people tend to disagree that same sex marriage should not be allowed because they cannot make kids. Allowing gay marriage would only further shift the purpose of marriage from producing and raising children. This is stating that children are not the only reason why relationship is important. It is through children that makes a relationship worth and want to be look still the potential to produce children.

According to the survey that I used to collect data and information, majority of the students disagree to legalize same sex marriage in American Samoa, because their main concern is based on their culture and religion. Most of the students agree to legalize same sex marriage, because they believe that everyone deserves to be treated equally, and fair.