What do you think about gay marriage and should it be legal or illegal?

Question

Im doing a project for school about gay marriage and I am curious about what you have to say about it. Please give me an answer and a good reason for your answer. Thank You.

Answer 1

I have no problems with it being legal. How will two men or two women that are married effect my life? It won't. I'm a man and I'm married to a woman. That's not going to change. If a gay couple moved in next door to me and got married, my marriage would still remain the way it is today.

The religious argument is a joke. Why should one religion cram their beliefs down other people's throats? If your religion does not support gay marriage, then your church does not have to perform a gay marriage ceremony. A church can refuse to perform the ceremony now to a heterosexual couple, so why would that change for a gay couple?

The "sanctity of marriage" argument is likewise a joke. How sacred can it be if a couple can get married and divorced over one weekend? If the current form of marriage is so sacred, why don't they ban divorce?

Answer 2

First, let me say I believe consenting adults should be able to do anything they want behind closed doors. I have a busy life and I could care less about others. Most people answer these questions with some preconceived bias based on religon or upbringing. The question should be "why do we have state sanctioned marriage in the United States?"

We have state sanctioned marriage for public policy reasons. The public policy revolves around children. It is a burden on our economy and time for unmarried people to have children. Two partner households share the brunt of raising children. They make more money. It is cheaper to have one household. Children of two (active) parents are less likely to end up in jail. The legal system promulgates this idea between married couples. A child born to a married couple is presumed the child of the husband. In some states, this presumption cannot be overcome. This is not inherently fair to the husband, however, it is an advantage to society as a whole because it promotes stabilty and is in the best interest of the child.

In addition, marriage provides stability to men. There is a reason my insurance rates went down when I married, I am less likely to do something stupid. Married men make more money, live longer, are more likely to own a house and less likely to go bankrupt. Again, these effects all benefit society. More money means more taxes and bankruptcy is absorbed by creditors thd their customers.

As a result, our Government provides incentives for marriage. You receive your spouce's pension and social security benefits if they die. Your taxes can be balanced (ie one partner makes a large sum the stay at home partner makes nothing you take the average of the two). Insurance companies are forced to provide family coverage.

What benefit is provided to the rest of us if gay men or lesbian women are provided state sanctioned marriage? The average homosexual does not have children. They are double income no kids. They are less likely to commit a crime than their straight counterparts. State marriage is not a religous right, it is a social contract.

Homosexuals should be free to enter into whatever union they wish, religous or civil. However, our society will not benefit from the union and we should not bear the added costs of the benefits of marriage.

Answer 3

There are two issues at play here, and you have to look at gay marriage from both sides.

If you view marriage as a purely religious bond with no legal bearings, then by all means, it can be restricted to heterosexual couples.

If you view marriage as a legal bond between two people, then there is no question that marriage needs to be something that both heterosexual AND homosexual persons can enjoy.

In the U.S., marriage gives certain legal rights to the persons involved. Because of this, it is discriminitory to not allow homosexuals to marry, because you are denying them equal legal rights.

For those that view marriage as needing to only be between a man and a woman, and that their religion tells them so, then why do so many religious people's marriage end in divorce? Didn't they vow to stay married "until death do us part"? Yet they threw that right out the window as soon as times got rough.

Marriage is a shambles here in the U.S., with about 20% of marriages (as of 2002) ending in divorce. At least it is better than the rates in the 1980, when the rate was about 41%! So, it is obvious that many people don't take marriage very seriously.

Then there is the cheating aspect. How many people who are married cheat on their spouses? They aren't supposed to, but they do it anyways. And some couples stay married despite that fact.

Personally, I approve of gay marriage, on the basis of the fact that homosexuals should enjoy the same basic freedoms and legal benefits that heterosexuals do. To deny them that right is to spit in the face of the whol Civil Rights Movement, Women's Sufferage, and other important points in our country's existence.

Right now, the religious right is hell bent on creating a second class citizen known as the homosexual. As a nation, we should be appalled at the notion that any law abiding citizen should be treated differently from any other.

Answer 4

The world is cold and cruel enough. If two human beings love each other enough to bind each other in marriage for life, than why not?

Sexual orientation is such a small part of the human experience. It is also about how, where, why and with whom we share the details of how we orientate ourselves sexually.

I have family members and good friends that are gay and it would hurt me to see them finally choose the love of their lives and not reap the benefit of what i would reap if they were me.

The issue is absurd in my book because it boils down to wordplay. If gays were to use "marriage" type terms to describe their partners - instead of a woman saying "partner" she would say "my wife and I...so and so" and the same for men - and if people were to refer to their friends as "this is my friend Sue and her girlfriend Mandy" - then I would think that within a generation or so - it would be so "common" and ordinary - that it just won't be - a big deal.

This will probably be another generation or so - they are everywhere in media - and that is simply because it was a matter of time - there have been gay people since the beginning of time and will always be - that is simply part of the variety and spice of life - we should all simply enjoy it!

Answer 5

I say to each his/her own. They love each other then let them get married if they want to. I mean they live together as man and man or woman and woman so why shouldn't they be entitled to the same benefits as you and I are entitled to. Like medical as in one spouse has it and then adds her husband or wife whatever the case may be. So why should gays or lesbians not be allowed to do the same. This is just one reason that I will list. But there are all so many. This is a subject that can and most likely will cause much debate. Good luck with your project I hope you get a good grade.

Answer 6

I think marriage, whether gay or straight is stupid and should not be recognized by the law. Gay people and straight people should have the same rights, but I think that both should have something like a domestic partnership, instead of marriage, which is an archaic idea derived from religion.

Answer 7

hostile to human nature. if anybody became gay then there might want to be a huge shrink in inhabitants, a mass upward thrust in growing older inhabitants and a drop in international monetary equipment. The people might want to die out... only awesome! So it would want to properly be unlawful, they are many times gay on mars in the journey that they opt for yet no longer in the international Hell No!

Answer 8

I think gay marriage should be allowed because marriage in this country is a legal status. This issue is controversial because marriage also holds a religious status for many people. I think there is a parallel to the gay marriage issue - the old anti-miscegenation laws which prohibited interracial marriage between whites and people of color. Many of the arguments against gay marriage sound as if they are taken directly from the arguments used to "justify" anti-miscegenation laws. Those laws were on the books in many states until a 1967 Supreme Court case (Loving v. Virginia) struck the laws as unconstitutional.

If this is a nation where we are free to believe (or not) as we see fit with regard to religion, religion can not be the basis of a legal argument.

Answer 9

After spending a year with the love of my life, I wanted to marry her. I knew she was the one for me, and she felt the same. We got married in a small ceremony and have been together for 17 years. I'd hate to think of how it would have felt if the state would have said "you can't marry her" for whatever reason. If two people love each other and want to spend the rest of their lives together, they should be afforded the same opportunity that I was. After all, this is supposed to be a free country.

Answer 10

LEGAL! The religious answer is hilarious... Jesus came to teach us love and tolerance... except for those damn fags! Its totally irrational. Two people who love eachother have every right to get married, end of story... How is this even an issue? Seriously gay people should take to the streets and do some damage, because no other group would accept discrimination as calmly as they do...

Keep in mind over half of our heterosexual marriages end in divorce... we don't seem to have any right to dictate to those who are homosexual, do we?