Gay individuals in this country have recently begun fighting in earnest for the right to legally marry. Some states allow them to have civil unions, but they are generally not happy with this and they want the full rights that marriage would allow them, such as insurance and other issues. There are other states and other countries, though, that have ruled in favor of gay marriage. When couples get married in these areas and than move to places where gay marriage is not recognized, it becomes a problem, and they have to fight for many of their rights. However, there are many reasons why gays should be allowed to legally marry, and the most compelling reason is that gay marriage goes along with natural law. For purposes of understanding, natural law will be discussed here, and then it will be shown how this law ties into the gay marriage issue.

             Natural law is based not on what is created by man, but on the laws of reality. In other words, what is real is law, regardless of what man has to say about that reality. Laws of nature and unexplainable issues that are related to natural occurrences (and some people would relate to religion) are seen as natural laws (Dolhenty, 2003. It is somewhat complicated to explain, but explanation is still necessary. Natural law does not change, and must be discovered by people. It involves moral law, ethical law, and other issues that are not changed based on what men decide or whether they think that these laws are appropriate.

             One of the most significant individuals in history that looked at natural law as it related to ethics and virtue was Aristotle. The main concept that Aristotle discusses is virtue. It would appear that virtue is very important to him, and that most everything that can be said about humanity hinges on virtue in one way or another. He sees virtue as being composed of two different things, and being both intellectual and moral.