Do you believe that unified gay and lesbian couples should be able to have the same rights as married couples?

Question

There is some lobbying for gay and lesbian couples to have the right to marry and gain the same rights as a traditional husband and wife marriage.

Personally, i believe that new legislation should be drawn up to cater for unions that give similar rights to couples that are married.
However i do not think that legislation should be changed to allow same sex couples to marry as traditional couples do now, specifically because this original legislation was chartered to apply to 'traditional' husband wife couples, not same sex couples.

What is your opinion on the issue?

Answer 1

I believe that committed, same-sex couples should have the same legal rights as committed, heterosexual couples. Whether they "marry" or not has always seemed more of a religious distinction to me, depending on one's church, and something the government has shouldn't have much say over (except, again, in the legal sense).

If we start deciding based on who has children, then it seems we'd have to disqualify heterosexual couples who don't have children. If we start deciding based on the "sanctity of marriage," then we need to start making divorces far, far less easy to get.

Answer 2

Marriage is two things. It is a ceremony done in a church with religious meaning, and also a civil contract sharing wealth, children, etc. People who aren't married should be able to enter an equivalent civil contract, like for instance two widows who want to buy a house together and be companions but not necessarily sexual partners. That's just a matter of equality under the law. I guess we agree on that part.

You could call that 'civil union' or 'civil marriage'.

But also, I know there are gay-friendly churches. If some church decides that it's theology allows gays to marry, then how could the state interfere with that? Does the state have the right to declare that churches can't define 'marriage' for themselves?

In fact, Christians who say a marriage has to be between a man and a woman, who are they to tell -other- churches what they can't do?

Answer 3

Firstly .. I am a straight married woman, so my answer isn't based on anything that would affect me directly.....

AND Yes .. I believe they should have the same rights as a Hetrosexual couple......

and please DON'T anybody give me the old marriage is for procreation..... because .. many people these days elect NOT to have children .... many people can't have children ... and many people marry again when they are no longer in their fertile years ...

marriage is for people who care about one another and who love one another and who want to make a committment.. what else matters so long as they are consenting adults.

It is not my business how other hetrosexual couples conduct their sex lives, what goes on between their sheets or anywhere else they select to *do it* in their own own is purely their own business ... SO WHY do some people consider it is their business what a gay couple do and then place boundaries upon them.......

That's My Opinion

Answer 4

i dont care what you call it, 'marriage' or not, my partner and i just want the same rights that marriage provides. believe me, it won't take a marriage certificate for us to feel committed to each other, it would just be nice for the government to recognize us as a cohabitating, committed couple. we are having a holy union (non-recognised gay marriage) in a month with our friends and family there to support us, and a pastor to officiate. we are married in the eyes of our families and ourselves, we're just waiting on the world to change. we are raising a baby together also, my partner works and i'm a stay at home mom. we are a family regardless of the law.

Answer 5

I think they should get equal rights at least. I don't care if they want to call it marriage or something else. Long as they get same rights as traditional married couples. They'll live together whether our law changes or not. I do think being able to chose you life partner is your fundamental human rights. I think the law should accommodate this.

To look at it another way we used to guarantee constitutional rights just to white folks not that long ago. We eventually extended that protections & rights to other races.

Answer 6

I believe that someone should be able to name a beneficiary to their estate whoever that person is that they want.
I believe a person should be able to share their benefits such as medical with a partner of their choice.
What other things were you thinking about?

It wouldnt be the same in my mind as a man and a woman being married but for legal purposes of the things I stated I cant see anything wrong with it.

Answer 7

Sorry bit I just can't get my head around the same sex marriages. Maybe its because I'm too old to relate but I have a hard time accepting the gay/lesbian family concept.

I guess it really doesn't matter much to me in the long run.

Answer 8

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The paragraph before this one is one of the most powerful groups of words in all of our rich and storied past. A handful of men and woman stood up against what seemed like impossible odds and demanded the right to live their lives the wanted to.

Now we stand at a simliar crossroads; our brothers and sisters are being systematcially attacked. Are they a threat to anyone on any level? NO. Are they trying to force their way of life upon the rest of us? NO. All they want is a chance to pursuit life, liberty, and happiness like the rest of us.

So let's get down to the real fundamental issue here; What is love? If you read the Bible it talks about the love between a man and a woman; alternaive lifestyles don't get very good press from the Bible. Now if the Bible is right then by denying equal rights to gay and lesbian couples you are helping to save them from destruction and the wrath of God. It would be very noble if it were true; but it isn't.

The same creative force that stood on high and made everything; well made everything. Now everything is a very scary word in this context. After all if God made everything then didn't it make Gays, Lesbians, Hermaphrodites, Straight folk, Black, White, Brown, Yellow, Red and every other color and kind of human being.

More imprtantly if that same creative force that we label as God made everything then condemning another because they don't live the exact same way that youdo is a condemntion of God's creation and a turning away from God's plan.

We weren't meant to all be the same; we were made to be diverse.

There is a part of you long buried by the rules and standards that you live by thatcries out in rage at the thought of another living being being denied their freedoms; listen to it.

I have died twice due to illness and found myself before my creator before being sent back and I can tell you one thing: To deny the inalianable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to a group that only seeks to follow their hearts is a sin more horrible then you can imagine.

It is a horror that in the end you will be made to see; you can only run from your own heart so long before it gives out and you find yourself before the creator as I did.

Answer 9

Two consenting adults who want to get married should all be in the same category. Man and woman, man and man, woman and woman, is irrelevant.

Answer 10

As a born again Bible believing Christian, I find it an abomination to God, as He gave a woman to man, not a man to man. A man and a woman are suppose to get married and reproduce. Tell me, how does a man and a man reproduce or a woman and a woman. People are ignoring the word of God and wonder why the world is going to hell. The answer to your question is in the Bible. My answer to your question, is that I agree with the word of God. No, gay couples should not have the same rights as real couples.
I only wish Jesus would hurry and come and rapture us Christians from this evil world.