Walaa Alyousif PROV-105-AC2 Initial Thoughts and Beliefs Esay 11/4/2013 I have decided to talk about current civil

rights issues in America, specifically about same sex marriage. We are group of two, and I will give the presentation with my partner Shehab Alyami. We choose this topic, because the belief about same sex marriage in America is completely different than in my country. In this project, we are going to interview lesbian or gay from lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. I do not have a vast background about same sex marriage that is why I am doing a project about this topic. However, in my opinion, there are no problems for same sex to marriage, and they supposed to have their rights as different sex marriage does. Moreover, my cultural believes, values, and norms are strict in this topic, and hard to accept the idea. The reason why my culture is not accept the same sex marriage is because they are religious, and our religion do not accept the same sex marriage because it will stop the human proliferation. However, since I came to America and live in it, I have different views about same sex marriage than my culture has. I have visited the three websites; Huffington post online, pew research group, and U.S. census bureau. These three website helped in understand the history of same sex marriage, which is the movement to obtain the marriage rights and benefits for same sex marriage in the United States began in 1970s, but it became more prominent in U.S. politics in 1993 when the Hawaii Supreme Court declared the state's prohibition to be unconstitutional. There are some current issues about same sex marriage, such as; they do not have the right of married from same gender in all statues of America. They have to go to state where it is legal to married from same gender.

According to Wikipedia website (fourteen states are covering 33% of the U.S. population issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples). Also, until these days, same sex couples are facing some discrimination from other people against their marriage. In conclusion, I want to do this project to learn about other cultures in this topic, because each culture has its own belief on it. For example, in Saudi Arabia, the same sex couples are marginalized by the government and people. This project will help me to build intercultural competence, because I came from culture where the same sex marriage is prohibited to culture with high number of supporters to the same sex marriage rights. Being between two different cultures, make you build intercultural competence.

Reference Same-sex marriage in the United States. (2013, November 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:51, November 5, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Samesex_marriage_in_the_United_States&oldid=580086263
PROV 105-American Cultures Initial Thoughts and Beliefs Essay Evaluation and Instructor Feedback Student Name: Walaa Alyousif Grade: 96/100 Excellent work! I look forward to seeing your final presentation. Introduction: 20 points
States specific topic and group/coculture Provides full names of group members Explains personal interests about this topic States full name of person that group plans to interview Strong Evidence 20-17 pts Strong Evidence 30-25 pts Some Evidence 24-20 pts Little / No Evidence 19-0 pts Some Evidence 16-14 pts Little / No Evidence 13-0 pts

Comments: 18/20

Body: 30 points
Describes personal views about this topic, group/co-culture Explains how own cultural beliefs, values, and/or norms influence personal views about this topic and group/coculture. States websites that were visited to learn about topics history and current issues States knowledge learned about history of topic and group/co-culture States knowledge learned about current issues related to topic and group/coculture

Comments: 28/30

Conclusion: 20 points
States learning goals for this project Gives ways in which this project will help develop intercultural competence

Strong Evidence 20-17pts Strong Evidence 20-17 pts

Some Evidence 16-14 pts

Little / No Evidence 13-0 pts

Comments: 20/20

Course Vocabulary: 20 points

Uses several course vocabulary words accurately in every paragraph

Some Evidence 16-14 pts

Little / No Evidence 13-0 pts

Comments: 20/20

Language and Format 10 points

Grammar/spelling errors are minimal and do not affect reader comprehension Follows format specified by instructor

Strong Evidence 10-9 pts

Some Evidence 8-6 pts

Little / No Evidence 5-0 pts

Comments: 10/10