Is denying homosexuals?

Question

Is denying homosexuals the right to marry in conflict with the 14th Amendment? (Equal protection under the law)

Thank you Metroman for perhaps clarifying the question further. When I say marriage, I meant the implicit legal rights that come along with marriage not the church ceremony.

Answer 1

Of course. It also says freedom or religion and the right to pursue happiness. Two women getting married doesn't hurt anyone and shouldn't be anyone Else's problem if it's not hurting them, which it isn't. This country isn't suppose to be christian, it's supposed to divide religion and government. How could two women loving each other and raising kids in a loving family be worse than those trying to stop them in the name of some kind of ethical propaganda? It doesn't make sense, it's just a way to keep the attention away from the war and bombing innocent families. What's worse? Two women loving and raising amazing kids or bombing people in other countries in the name of freedom? What's the deal?

Answer 2

That's a duplicitous question. Since 'marriage' is a religious ceremony. Really, any acknowledgments of 'marriage' is an endorsement of one religion over another. Some churches do marry homosexuals and other don't. Government endorsement of those that don't, is an unconstitutional endorsement of one religion over another. Dangerous stuff.

However, denying homosexuals access to the same benefits and access that civil union contracts provide under the law, is, in my opinion, a violation of Equal protection under the law.

Good question.

Answer 3

It definately violates the constitution, but that has never been the arguement. The arguement is that somehow, we have to keep the sanctaty of marriage intact to ensure a smooth society. It's laughable because the real reason is Christian in nature, and nothing else. However, lets look at the Christian side.


If you have ever been to a Christian wedding, you know that marriage is a big deal. You have the priest or minister standing with the couple reading from the Bible and praying. The ceremony takes place in a church -- the house of God. Dozens or hundreds of witnesses are on hand. In front of God, a representative of God and all of these witnesses, a couple declares that they will wed "til death do us part."

The Christian faith also puts a very, very large stigma on divorce. For example, in Matthew 5:32 Jesus says:

But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.

In Matthew 19:9, Jesus repeats that sentiment:

I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery
Adultery is a major problem in the Christian faith. First, one of the commandments in the Ten Commandments specifically forbids adultery.

Even worse, in Leviticus 20 we find this:

If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbour, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.

Adulterers get the death penalty. Clearly, God and Jesus want Christians to stay married for life.

So let's review. When a Christian couple gets married, we have all of these forces that should be working to keep them married:

The marriage is performed in God's presence...
...in God's house...
...in front of God's representative (a minister or priest)...
...and in front of many Christian witnesses.
The couple presumably prays before and after the wedding for a good marriage...
...as do all of the witnesses...
...and the minister/priest.
The couple knows that if they divorce/remarry, it is an act of adultery...
...which God has forbidden...
...and which the Bible says is punishable by death.

And don't forget this important line from the ceremony: What God has joined together let no man put asunder. Now think about this. God is the all-powerful, all-knowing creator of the universe. If God puts something together, shouldn't it be impossible to break it? Isn't that what "all-powerful" means?

Given all of this, and given the fact that an all-powerful, prayer-answering God is supposedly looking over the lives of a Christian couple, guiding them in the spirit and so on, what would you expect the divorce rate for Christians to be? Clearly, the Christian divorce rate should be zero.

But when we look at the divorce statistics of American couples, and compare Christian vs. non-Christian divorce rates, we find this strange statistic: divorce rates among Christians match those among the rest of the population. It does not matter whether the couple is Christian or not. According to this article, "'While it may be alarming to discover that born-again Christians are more likely than others to experience a divorce, that pattern has been in place for quite some time,' said George Barna, president of Barna Research Group." There are a millions ways to crunch the data, but no matter how you slice it, it is easy to see that Christians divorce just as often as non-Christians.

In the end it's all bull crap. Everyone should be able to marry no matter what their sexual preferance is.

Answer 4

V. much so. We are not a christian society and getting a marriage license does not mean someone would have a Christian wedding. I've been to only 1 Christian wedding, it was nice, but I would never have one. The right to marry is not the right to marry in a church. Equal treatment should extend to homosexuals unless you'd make sure no one would ever marry in a Handfasting, in Vegas, in front of a judge, on the beach or by clergy that weren't Christian--and *that* would violate freedom of religion.

Answer 5

Metroman, marriage is a CIVIL ceremony. That's the ceremony gays want. Who cares about the religion ceremony. What's unfair is all the rights and privileges UNDER THE LAW that CIVIL MARRIAGE affords straight people. Gay people should have access to these same rights.

Answer 6

Absolutely.

Iin Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court recognized that one of these rights under the fourteenth amendment is the right to marry. Further, states may not violate the right to marry by redefining matrimony however they like. One way that states can violate the right to marry, as Loving recognized, is to criminalize certain categories of marriage.

Answer 7

Yes, it most definitely is. Our government (in the beginning) was set up to "keep church and state separate", denying homosexuals the right to marry is a religious action. Wrong, wrong, wrong!!

Answer 8

Yes very much so. But why would anyone allow the US government to dictate who they can marry. we need to separate church and state here and let all people marry by their religion and keep the state out of all our marriages. Straight and Homosexual Alike.

Answer 9

No. Letting people kill them would be, but equal protection does not mean everyone has the right to marry anyone.

Answer 10

Everybody in love has the right to marry. (Duh.) But this question has been asked over and over again and answered just as many times. Look it up in the "discover" area of this page under "right to marry, right to love, or gay/lesbian/bisexaul marriage."