Why do you gays want to marry?

Question

I am for gay marriages, but why isn’t it enough for you to live together? Marriage is rather religious, and you can’t really argue with religions, can you?

Answer 1

i care NOTHING about religion.

I want my husband to make decisions on my behalf without interference. Without interference, I want my husband inherit my house, my money, and everything else I own when I die. I want my husband to be the legal beneficiary of my insurance policies.

are you getting it yet?

my husband I want to enjoy all the legal provisions and protections of marriage.

Answer 2

We simply want equal treatment. Civil marriage is completely different than religious marriage. We also decided a while ago in this country that separate but equal is inherently unequal, thus calling it something other than marriage doesn't work. And the funny thing...I can still get a religious marriage, and will when the time is right. I've got a very respected minister (locally) lined up already. So...that already rules out the religious part anyway. Civil marriage shouldn't even consider religion and was created as a means to handle inheritance and property.

There are over 1000 rights, privileges and responsibilities that civil marriage grants a couple. We want equal access to those. And you can certainly argue with religion, smart people do it all the time (including the religious people). Part of having faith is to ask questions and to argue with the norm and accepted. There's a reason there are so many denominations of religions, because people argue. It's also a reason that I stick to my faith and don't bother with organized religion too much.

Answer 3

Number one, this is a broad question. Not all gays want to marry for the same reason. One reason is finical and security. Married people enjoy a lot of benefits. They get cheaper car insurance, health insurance, tax breaks. If two women are together and one is working and has insurance and the other decided to have a child, there is no way to add her to the other women's insurance. That is just the top of the ice berg. The other problem is religious. Marriage is not always religious. You might interpret it as such. In essences marriage is commitment between two people. Many people marry to show their love for one another. Last of all I would like to address the question "you can't really argue with religions, can you?" That is a very narrow minded question. There are thousands of religions out there. Just because the popular ones are against homosexuality doesn't mean they all are. If gay man was agnostic, believing in God and that God wants people to marry is that man religious? Of course he is, he just doesn't believe in any of the organized religion current established. With all that being said I think Gays should be allowed to married even though I don't believe homosexual is right. But the government should not be allowed to say who should marry and who should not. People have to have the freedom to do what ever they want as long as it doesn't affect the freedom of other people. It wasn't too long ago that the government said a Black person and a white person couldn't marry.

Answer 4

Well, for one thing, you are right, marriage has a religious element to it, but there are a lot of queer people of faith who want to be married for that reason. For another, in America, as well as most other countries, you get a ton of legal rights and privileges if you get married. From joint tax filing, to employee benefits, to adoption, to inheritance. So there is an issue about equal legal rights. On a more personal note, for some same-sex couples who already have children (or even those who don't), it causes an emotional and mental conflict to be a family, but not be married like everyone else. For the children, they don't understand, because they equate marriage with love, so the fact that Daddy and Daddy aren't married is confusing or upsetting to them. To the couple themselves, they can be hurt by the fact that their relationship is considered invalid, because a lot of people consider marriage a validation of love and commitment. Marriage, as much as it may be a religious ceremony or considered a religious act by some people, it is also a legal union, with inherent legal rights, and "seperate but equal" (i.e. civil unions) don't work.
As for arguing with religions, no you can't, and you shouldn't. Even if you think a person is wrong, undermining their faith is as bad as them undermining the love between to queer people. Same-sex couples who want a religious ceremony might have a hard time of it, but hopefully they will be able to find an open-minded clergy member. But still, marriage is a legal institution now, so unless we change it so straight and gay people both have "civil unions" (and we all know how well that will work out), we need to have "marriage" inclusive of same-sex couples too.

Answer 5

I would agree with you, if marriage was only religious. However, the state (that is you and me and everyone else) gives all sorts of advantages to "married" couples from taxes to passports to wills. For example, if I marry a foreign citizen, she, as the spouse of an American citizen, goes to the top of the list for a green card, a gay couple would have a hard time getting into this country. Another example, as a citizen of California, my wife can inherit my estate virtually tax free (and visa-versa)
but a gay couple, no matter how long they have been together, cannot have "community property." Of course, my answer is that the state should get out of the marriage business and, indeed, leave it to religions and let all 'domestic partnerships" be equal.

Answer 6

Why do straight ppl want to marry? I guess marriage had something to do with religion generations ago, but not now. Marriage is just a romantic get together where you promise yourself to each other. It's also a custom for christians to be blessed by the pastor, but other than custom that's all it is: promising yourself to someone.

It's not really called marriage for homosexuals either, I think it's called a "union".

Answer 7

i think it is that they want to have the same relationship and have it mean something like heterosexuals. If they love each other why shouldn't they have a wedding and celebrate their love and have something that the courts recognize so they can make life decisions for their partners? They also can share health care and other things married people share. I am all for anyone gay or straight that wants to marry. There are so many different kinds of relationships (interracial, gay, etc) so i think we have to let people live the way that has meaning and happiness for them.

Answer 8

Well my religion supports gay marriage 100%. I'm Wiccan. Should I not be allowed to have a relgious marriage because some other people's religions disapprove? That is a stupid way to run a system. Whose religion is on top? Whose religion gets veto rights? Even within Christianity, United Church of Christ supports gay marriage 100% and Southern Baptists oppose it 100%.... who gets to win there? I want the blessing of my faith on my committment, why should I be denied that?

Also marriage comes with a host of legal rights. I already have the committment with my partner, I don't need a piece of paper to validate that. But it sucks that I don't get the same legals then straight people who make their committments. For instance:

If my gf was in the hospital, I can't visit her in the ICU since I'm not family. I can't make medical decisions for her. If she dies, I can't decide where to bury her. If she has to go in an ambulence, I can't ride along.

If she dies, we loose the house together since legally I'm considered a roommate not a spouse. Similarly for the car.

I can't adopt my own children, the children we concieve together, birth together, and raise together. That means I can't pick them up from school without a note from her, I cant take them across national boarders without her, and I can't take them to a doctor and make any medical decisions for them. (Some of this I can do if I shelve over about $20,000 to lawyers to get a couple of the things that a straight couple gets for a $50 marriage liscense).

If she dies, I don't get access to her social security or pension. I can't take funeral leave from my job because she is not family.

We file income tax as two single people so we pay twice as much in income tax.

We have to get health insurance for both of us, since we're not married, I can't share my insurance with her. Similarly since I can't adopt my kids, I can't give them my insurance either.

If we go into a nursing home together, they don't have to put us in a room together. They can place us on seperate ends of the building.

We can't get a gym membership or a AAA membership together. We have to pay twice as much.

If we break up, I will get nothing. No alimony. She wont be able to get child support from me. No one wants to think about divorce, but divorce laws do protect both halves of a couple in the event they should split. No protections for me or her.

And that is just a handful of the things I can think of off the top of my head.

Answer 9

marriage is a higher level of commitment and u would want 2 know that this person is faithful and fully commited 2 u but on the other hand marriage is religeous and i would not want 2 offend any 1

Answer 10

You can always argue with religions......gay people want to marry for some of the same reasons that straight people do...+_+

Answer 11

Because while marriage can be viewed in a religious context it has a variety of legal aspects that we are denied. This question came up a few days ago and i think blueowlboy said it better than the best answer. heres a link scroll down about mid page. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AqXAZvJ7ed964ztmGxoScLzsy6IX?qid=20060608195222AAMQQ7T