To All Those Who Are Against Gay Marriage?

Question

Why? And I want to hear nothing about religious beliefs because this is a political debate and church and state are seperate.

How would two gay men or lesbian women affect your life directly if they joined together in union? I'm not saying marriage because marriage is a religious term, I'm talking about a domestic union legally recognized by the government.

How would this partnership directly affect your day-to-day activities so that it needs to be banned?

Fremont - It's apart of the First Amendment:
"The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment prohibits the establishment of a national religion by Congress or the preference of one religion over another, or religion over nonreligion."

BeC - That's why I called it a "domestic union" and not marriage. Matrimony is a religious sacrament, therefore homosexuals cannot get married because many religions do not believe in that. I accept that. A domestic union would not be religious in any way, but recognized under the government as equal to married individuals and affording them the same rights.

BeachBum - BRAVO!! Wonderfully well said!!

bluenote2k - I love your answer. Amazing.

Answer 1

There is no valid reason that it shouldn't be allowed.

I have heard all kinds of arguments against it. I am going to take the time to go over each of them.

1. Why now?
-Because it is called progression just as our society progressed and decided that blacks had a soul and were considered human beings with the same civil rights. Also, there are finally hate crimes laws protecting gay ppl in their protest; whereas, these protections did not exist before.

2. This country was based on Christian values.
-Sure it was but once again those Christian values had errors just like in #1 that we, as a society, have corrected. Those corrections are based on unconstitutionally hindering a minority's civil rights.

3. Our forefathers meant for our laws to follow the church and the 1st admendment doesn't really say separation of church and state.
- I love this one because I love it when a person tries to tell me what the forefathers were thinking. Here is a quote by Thomas Jefferson on this issue, "...I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State."

Pay close attention to that last line..."thus building a wall of separation between Church and State"
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/churchstate.html
So there is it. That is what the forefathers WERE THINKING = separation of church and state.

4. Why do gays want special rights?
- This one is laughable. It is the heterosexuals that have the speical rights because they are straight. We want equal rights. We want the same inheritance rights, next of kin rights, health benefits rights, foreign spouse citizenship rights, tax dependent rights, etc....

We will gladly withdraw our argument/protest if heterosexual ppl will give up their special rights. They can still have their sacred marriages in their churches but just not be given special rights by the state that other tax-paying citizens are not allowed to have.

5. The majority is against gay marriage.
- First of all that statistic is incorrect. It is currently about 50/50. But even it were, that is completely invalid. We do not have a dictatorship where majority rules. Our country was designed to protect minority groups from mass control. If this were not the case, slavery would still exist and schools would still be separated, as well as, women not being allowed to vote.

6. It is not natural.
- How many of these ppl with this argument have performed oral sex? I'd be willing to bet the majority. Absurd argument and being gay is not about sex. It is about a the relationship and bond between two adults of the same sex.

7. Gay ppl will raise gay children.
- absurd. It has been proven that gay parents tend to raise more emotional children that tend to be more open-minded and secure with their own sexuality.

8. It will influence my children to be gay.
- Once again absurd. It is up to each parent to teach their values to their children. To teach their children what is right or wrong from what they believe. There are plenty of what we consider 'negative' influences in society that it is the parent's responsibility to discuss with their child. You can not hinder a tax-paying citizen's civil rights just because you don't want to take responsiblity for teaching your children your beliefs.

Answer 2

The only reason to oppose gay marriage is prejudice. All of the other arguments against it just don't hold water.

1) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Brittany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

9) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

Answer 3

Why?

1. Because a marriage is defined as the romantic union between A MAN and a WOMAN.

2. Cost of changing the law is too much.

3. The room for manipulation of the law if it were allowed.

4. Terrorism: a islam citizen could smuggle in terrorists by marrying them; i.e. they could be an Al Qai'dah network. (basically the same as reason #3)

5. Basic economics. The gay population generates a lot of tax income, by marrying this would reduce fiscal revenues.

6. Most importantly, the majority of Americans are against same-sex marriages. We live in a Democratic society, not an Aristocratic one.

7. Obscure terms like "domestic union" etc. change the very definition of marriage which result in legal loopholes that ultimately ruin the true of intent of what a marriage is supposed to be.

8. Psychologically, it may affect certain married people who feel that they should not be classified with people who love each other and are the same sex.

9. Potential public reaction could make gays live in unsafe conditions due to risk of violent protests (i.e. gay bashing)

10. It's priority is not important enough to debate in government houses that make the laws; because it will require extensive debate, it is not an important enough issue for politicians to focus strongly on. Local politicians, such as in SF, it would make a difference, but not at the state, county or federal level which the vast constituency of tax payers are heterosexual.

Other issues such as education, the war on terrorism, employment laws, etc. have a higher priority. The cost of debating the change of this law would be unfair to the majority of taxpayers who are not homosexual.

Answer 4

Most religious people I know say they would accept a legal union, so long as you don't call it marriage. Marriage to most religious is a sacrament or covenantal relationship which includes God. Legal unions are much less of a problem to religious.

Gays and lesbians on the other hand want nothing less than full recognition as marriage. From what I understand from them, they believe that if they are given a lesser term, that would mean lesser status, lesser rights, lesser recognition. They do not want "legal unions" they want "marriage".

Answer 5

noone said marriage was strictly man to woman. is that a rule that was made when the marriage was first thought of? NO. religion has taken away enough from people, so maybe it should stop for once and let people be happy. the roman catholic church has killed,raped,slaughtered,stolen, and hidden cultures ever since it started, so maybe it can stop for once and let people live like thye want. go worship a dumb book and a dead guy somewhere else and just leave our lives out of it. let people do what they want.

Answer 6

Surely you're not naive enough to actually believe church and state are separate? If a person is raised under church beliefs then gets a public office appointment later in life you know they are still resting on their religious beliefs to make their decisions. If church and state were really separate we wouldn't have alot of the problems we have today.

Answer 7

As someone already said, the only reason would be a religious one. Then i ak people like that, do you want a theocracy?? Do you want government and religion the same?? Thats a main point of this country, to have it NOT be the same.

Answer 8

Big money people do not like it so thats how it is.
Its the same old story, they say its ok to be gay and then turn around and say not to the legalization of same sex unions.
Personally I could care less. It is a free country so we are told.

Answer 9

more people ripping of the system to get the bennies that marrieds get, cuz they do get alot of bennies.

Fremont is right "seperation of church and state" is not actually in the constitution. the only time those words were actually used was in a letter written by Jeferson, and he meant that the government will not interfere with people freedom to practice religion.

Answer 10

Anyone watch the Colbert report. He asked a gay marriage opponent how close he was to losing his marriage and becoming gay. That that was way to funny.

Answer 11

I don't have a problem with civil unions. Proponents lose me when they say it has to be "marriage", because that's not what marriage is. If we're going to redefine the term for one special-interest group, why not others?