I'm totally pro gay amrriage even though Im not gay I have friends and my parent's friends Carla and Miriam fell in love and decided to get married. Last summer they held a lavish ceremony on the coast. All of their friends and family attended. Carla’s dad, a minister, officiated. Miriam’s dad wrote and sang a special song. After the reception, the two headed off to their honeymoon.

When they returned, they felt like a married couple. They moved in together, opened their gifts and started talking about having a baby. Even though, the couple feels committed to each other, they have none of the legal rights that protect other married couples. If Carla becomes ill, Miriam is not guaranteed the right to be with her in the hospital. If Miriam dies, her distant nieces and nephews have more of a claim to her belongings than Carla does. They file “single� on their tax returns and are not allowed to be on each other’s health plans.

The Canadian government ruled on June 10th 2003 to overturn the laws that prevented same sex couples from marrying.

Sorry...I cant really give you an against answer. Almost all the against answers people give have something bull shit about religion in them......Athiests are allowed to get married therefore religion should not have anything to do with it. As for us dieing off....not too likely. Yes ok children of gay couples will more likely be gay but not always....the gay people came from heterosexual parents at some point.......but that does not mean that all people will be gay....there are far more hetero sexuals out there then homosexuals....and they can reproduce heterosexual children....

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I fully support gays of both genders, but I do not believe in gay marriage. The concept of marriage (however blackened the ritual may be) is a religious practice, and should remain so. The fact that, according to religion, being gay is a sin, should exempt them from this sacred process.

People who support gays say they are against discrimination, but they support gay marriage. This is directly saying that you do not support people who ARE against gays, which makes them highly hypocritical.

However, I do believe there should be a legal binding process that gives gay couples the same rights as married couples. I think it is wrong that gays are not capable of receiving the same benefits that married couples receive. But again, I do not support the concept of marriage itself.

Re: Debate: Gay Marriage
 

Absolutely not. Why should it occur to me that this is strange? If you want to get really technical, love is just a series of chemical reactions in the brain. If they want to be with each other - assuming that they're a pair of consenting adults - who the hell am I to stop them?

That has more to do with religion than anything else, given that most weddings are religiously based. This isn't even an actual argument, especially considering that most gay couples can't get married anyway because it's outlawed.

That's circular logic:

"Gays shouldn't get married because most people who get married are men to women."
"Men and women are married the most often because gays can't get married."


Religion should not be playing a role in laws at all. God also said that shellfish were bad to eat and that you shouldn't wear blended fibers, but I'm going to take a guess and say you conveniently ignore that, don't you?

Explain to me how homosexuals are destroying the world.

Prove this. I want to see statistics from a non-biased source. I've never heard anything like this from any reputable source ever.

Again - prove it.

Like I said before - prove it. Right now that looks like one crazy-ass slippery slope fallacy rather than any sort of coherent argument. If you can PROVE that gay couples raise more gay children, go right ahead - but until that, your entire argument has just been destroyed.

I find I agree with Mattybee. I have never heard a good solid reason against gay marriage that did not have soemthing to do with religion. We should not put religion as having any part in this. Everyone says that marriage is a religious ceremony but then I have to ask you...if marriage is religious then why are athiests allowed to get married?

That always stewed me about 'arguments' against gay marriage. The argument that they can't have children so it's not right that they be allowed to marry. This basically insinuates that straight couples who can't have kids naturally don't have a right to marry either.

Further more being gay is genetic, the 'homosexual gene' (for lack of a better name), is passed through the father's genes to the children. It's scientifically proven, go look it up.

To follow up on what Mattybee wrote about the shellfish thing, and to add more detail to it. There are only two sections in the bible that mentions anything against homosexuality one is in Leviticus and the other is Paul's Letters to the Romans (I think it was Paul). Leviticus was a quack in everyday shape and form; if you're gunna believe anything he wrote than you might as well stop eating shellfish, and you'll need to know as a woman we're unpure during out 'cycle' and anyone else who sits where we've sat is unpure as well. As for the letters, think about it this is just after the death of Christ and when they were pretty sure the world was coming to an end.

Some food for thought from a religious perspective, on homosexuality. The Church is not anti-gay, they just believe that those feelings shouldn't be acted upon (which isn't right since everyone has a right to love and express that).

Oh and gay marriage is legal in my country so I'm definitely all for it (but not solely because of that).

I personnally don't understand the whole ... "gay" thing... but if that's what you want, so be it. My problem is with people saying that gay marrige would ruin the "Sanctity of Marrige" Ya' know what's really ruining the "Sanctity of Marrige"? the 24-hour drive-thru chapels in Vegas!:o

ignorance is bliss. marriage is not a "christian/catholic thing". there are pagan weddings, jewish weddings, atheist weddings, the list goes on. it should not matter if it's a bride and bride or groom and groom. as long as it's btwn two consenting adults, there is nothing wrong with it. marriage is a union of lovers. gender does not and should not matter.

Did anyone see that California lifted their ban on gay marriage today? I personally think its a good thing that they've done this because its the first step in giving everyone an equal opportunity. The whole gay marriage discrimination thing is stupid; it (gay marriage) should be allowed all over. I'm tired of hearing about these gay couples not being able to be married because of religious and social bigotry and fear. There's no need for it. Let every do what they want within reason. Gay marriage isn't hurting anyone and it's not breaking any kind of tradition. Marriage should not be defined by gender.

I accept gay marriage because I accept love.
People fall in love with other people, people who understand them. People who care about them.
People who they're attracted to, whether it's a man or woman.
It's love.

The reason they don't say man and man or woman and woman is because you've been to wedding of straight couples.
Also, those are just christian weddings.

Why would gay people not have a structure or be succesful?
Take a look at Ellen and Portia. They have perfect structure.
Just like Elton John and his husband.
Gay people aren't screwing anything up. They're just living their lives.
I don't see how they destruct the earth?

Obviously, there's a lot of straight couples who can't get pregnant.
Also, adopting is the greatest thing ever.
It gives orphans a chance to have a good future and to be raised by people who love them.
Also, the probability of the children becoming gay too is just nonsense.
If that was true, how come gay people come from straight families?

Actually, that would only do us good.
The more people on earth, the more junk.
And the more CO² which is bad for the environment.
The world population was around 2 billion in 1945, which at that time was the biggest the population had ever gotten.
Now in about 50 years it's nearly 7 billion.
That's an INCREDIBLE amount of people, and in 2030 there'll be 9 billion people.
So if gay people would cause the population to drop, i'm all for it.

It does make me feel warm and fuzzy inside that when I find the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with I can marry her and be treated in the same manner as heterosexual married couples in the eyes of the law. And no, I don't find it strange that two people of the same gender have fallen in love. Love isn't limited to race, religious believes or looks so why should it be limited to gender?

It happens in nature, it happens among mammals and that's what we are in the end.

So you are basing your definition on highly ritualized sentences devised by men who only support heterosexual marriage and would keel over at the notion of two men or two women who are in love marrying. In addition, isn't there also something in the vows about always standing by eachother's side through sickness and in health? For richer and for poorer? Infact staying together despite all the good and bad things that happen? But still divorce is legal and these days people seem to divorce eachother at the drop of a hat and people hardly make as big an issue out of that as they make out of gay marriage.

... Excuse me? I fail to see the connection between gay marriage and the world's destruction. People are not going to extinct simply because the gay members of society marry eachother. Not everyone is going to become gay or a lesbian. In fact, it would provide more loving homes for children who are given up for adoption. When gay or lesbian couple have children this is a conscious choice, well thought over and with the pros and cons weighed up against eachother. Heterosexual couples always run the risk of accidental pregnancies. No matter how effective the pill or a condom is they are not 100% secure.

And your argument about children raised by gay parents turning out gay is absolutely flawed. If being raised by parents of a certain sexuality determines our sexuality then we'd all be straight to begin with. The only difference is that the children raised by a gay family will be raised with a more open outlook on the possibilities of sexuality and will be less afraid of coming out themselves because they know that they will be accepted by their parents and won't have to face rejection, abuse or being sent away to one of those 'pray the gay away' camps.

My parents are straight and my father makes quite a few gay-unfriendly jokes. I was at first terrified of coming out to them and this caused me to become depressed and difficult because I couldn't be open to them. Once I did (now two years ago) I brightened up considerably, became easier to deal with and with a much more positive outlook on life. What's so wrong with something that makes me feel so happy and at peace?

I already argued this statement above but the sheer... strangeness of this reasoning demands that I give a bit of insight from a lesbian point of view. There are not nearly enough gay/lesbian people to 'deplete the straight population' (take this from a girl who's been looking) and even if that was the case there are a lot of homosexual people who actually want children and they don't necesarily need to adopt. For example I know of two couple, two men married to eachother and two women and they 'share' their kids kind of like how divorced couples share custody. The women both had a child through artificial insemination from the other couple.

Beyond that, there is a growing HETEROSEXUAL group who don't want children. Ever. I don't see anyone throwing a fuss over them claiming how they are a death wish.

The Netherlands, my home country, was the first country to legalise same-sex marriages and look: we're still here.

LemonTree, you're my new best friend (partly because of your arguement, partly because of your screen name) XD Now I'm going to add to your arguement.

Firstly, by denying marriage to homosexuals, you go against the most famous line of Decelaration of Independence (which is totally irrelevant to anyone outside of the U.S.): "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". Last I checked, being allowed to marry someone you love makes people pretty happy.

Secondly, if marriage is a religious deal, why do Athiests get married? Why do Agnostics marry? There are tons of people who question or outright deny religion, yet they marry. So what the heck should marriage have to do with religion anymore? The only reason it was ever created was to protect the children, and if a man and a man, or a woman and a woman married and adopted, it would still do this.

Thirdly, statistics show that homosexual relationships tend to last longer than heterosexual ones (I think it's because we have a very limited amount of potential partners out there, so it's either make it work or be single for a while, but that's just me ^^; ) so divorce would be a lot less likely, meaning a more stable home life for the child, if there is one.

Fourthly, what gives anyone the right to interfere in the lives of others? You know, I always hear about how homosexuals are gross and unnatural and corrupted and all this...Personally, I think you heteros are weird. I think it's gross how many women are pumping out babies, how many husbands are cheating on their wives, and how hateful some people can be towards those who are different. I think it's disgusting to have to see a teenage couple making out in the mall or what-not. But that's just my opinion, and love is love, no matter the sex, race, gender, religion, or what have you. I don't understand why I should be denied the right to have the same union as a hetero couple with someone I love just because we're both women. And what about those who are both gay and Christians (and, yes, they do exist)? Why should their religion turn its back on them because they happen to be attracted to someone of the same sex? Honestly, I feel the worst for them, because I know several people who have the lowest self-esteem because they're Christian gays and their church has told them they're going to hell.

Love is love, and if it's pure, why should it be judged? The government, the church, and the public needs to stay out of the private lives of decent, law-abiding citizens. And if you find it gross, don't be around it! It's as simple as that, and people need to realize that.

Okay, I'm done now ^^;

I'm for gay marriage.

It's their life, and their decisions. If they're happy about it, that's entirely fine -- why are you so bothered about it if it's not even your life? Have you ever been in their shoes? Being discriminated because of their sexuality?

First of all, why are you including religion in this matter? Religion and sexuality are irrelevant, and religion is not appropriate for this debate - because it's extremely biased.

Have you really done your research with children with gay parents? You obviously haven't, because all your post has is biased opinions. You need research, dear, to back them up.

Children CAN be raised with homosexual parents - it doesn't ever mean that they will prove to be gay themselves. They are more open-minded to people's orientations - that's true, but it doesn't EVER mean that they'll be homosexual - that's society's assumptions of same-sex parenting, but that is merely a myth.

"In 2001, Judith Stacey and Timothy J. Biblarz, then sociologists at the University of Southern California, published a review of 21 previous studies of the children of homosexual parents (most of them lesbians). Almost uniformly, they wrote, the research found no systematic differences between children reared by a mother and father and those raised by same-sex parents......

Charlotte J. Patterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and a prominent researcher in the field, has found that the purposefulness inherent in same-sex parenting tends to counter any societal disadvantages. "I think what we're seeing overall is pretty positive adjustment on the part of these kids," she said. "What that suggests, I think, is that we may have overrated the role of gender in parenting in our theoretical notions about these matters." ......" - LA Times

[QUOTE=charis_mae;1485524]Except studies have shown that being raised by gay parents only makes children more likely to be tolerant of gay people. Not more likely to be gay themselves.

I definatly have to agree with you there, how do people come up with such nonsense?

[quote=charis_mae;1485524]Your argument is flimsy because it's based on a false assertion and religious appeals. The only people you'll convince are Christians who already believe homosexuality is wrong.

Now, I'm Christian ( I'm not a fanatic or crazy) I dont go to church anymore, but when I did i would sit there and think..."There tottaly brain washing everyone"..I do believe in God, more so lucipher the fallen angel mwahaha! But seriously, in the bible it says gays are an "abomination"......how stupid is that? you can't help the way your born, A lot of religeon is Hate in my eyes and its pathetic. Gays should have exactly the same writes as anyone else. Anyone who thinks otherwise, it's called hate.

Okay. I'm only getting involved because I feel strongly about this. ^_^;

I'm all for gays and lesbians getting married. This is because gays already get enough shit just for being true to themselves. If they like the same gender then fine. If they want to marry their other half then I say let them. I've heard of people commiting suicide because society just wont accept them. And in some cases, not being allowed to marry your true love could be the final straw. If gay marriage was legal everywhere, I think that just maybe homosexuality could start to be accepted as 'normal'. I have a gay friend who gets stuff thrown at him at lunch times and a load of abuse from other kids for being a homosexual. It's not right. At the end of the day it comes down to love between two people. The only thing I see lacking from a same-sex relationship is the inability to have children. Solution? Adopt one. Everything else is there. Love, support, security...etc. So, yes, I am for gay marriage. :)

the fact that you would even compare pedophilia and beastiality to gay marriage, proves you are ignorant on this subject. a child cannot give consent and neither can an animal.

The reson of the wording seems incredibly petty an arguement. Those words can be changed by simply saying man and man. There, problem solved.

Your last reason especailly falls down under any kind of scrutiny; Firstly our world is massively overpopulated not underpopulated.
Secondly gays are the minority and straight people are not going to 'turn gay' if they are not.

And as for the rather silly 'only in it for the sex' debate above me; If we are doing it for the sex why do we not find the opposite sex remotely attractive? Your sexual preferences are exactly that: Who you the individual find attractive.

A child or an animal cannot give consent, as two adults can. Witha child or an animal it is always rape, not love.

ok i see there are many posts....so i will say one thing

WHY GIVE THEM SO MUCH ATTENTION. treat them like everyone else (cuz they are) and dont give them so much attention.

I already had this topic up once somewhere...anyways.

I have to say your arguements are very very flimsy.

For one: There is supposed to be a separation of church and state in this country therefore any Religious arguements should indeed be null and void....which includes both the man and woman arguement because it pulls from a religious ceremony and disregards civil marrages. It also null and voids the arguement based on religion.

As for the children arguement. It has been proven that being a child of a homosexual couple only makes you more tolerate of them, not that you will nessesarily be homosexual yourself.....this still remains 50/50 shot. As for the spreading of homosexuality there are far more people who are heterosexual then there are people who are homosexual and therefore the heterosexuality is actually spreading faster. Sorry to burst your bubble.

@Strands- almost every religion has some sort of a marriage ceremony...its not just christianity. Besides marriage has come to spread further the religion. Just a side note. Glad you are supportive of Gays though xP