Poll: Gay marriage- your thoughts?

[Baby Tea]

If gay marriage is legalized, then they should just legalize polygamy, and 70 year old men should be able to marry 16 year old girls, and parents should be allowed to marry their children. Where the hell are we supposed to draw the line? Someone please let me know.

We're supposed to draw the line at idiots like you. It isn't an arms race dude.

But it's a pretty good point.
Why not polygamy? Why not incest?

If two people love each other, then what's the deal?

Now I'm not in favor of polygamy, OR incest.
As for gay marriage? I don't care.

But that does raise the question about where the 'line' is. You could say that 'polygamy' and 'incest' are a kind of common sense 'no-no'. But to many people, that can be said about homosexuality, right? So where one person sees 'wrong', another sees 'right' or 'fine by me'! And in this increasingly amoral culture we're living in, when do we admit we've conceded too much?

 

[Jeronus]

I say we should ban all marriage. Britney Spears has become a metaphor for what marriage has become. Britney started her career much like marriage. They were loved by all and they could do no wrong then they slowly started to crack under the immense pressure of society and became nothing more than stupid slutty twats who can't seem to go outside without doing something embarrassing or downright stupid *cough* Kevin Federline *cough*. I believe we should put an end to all marriage and Britney Spears before they break rock bottom and manage to slide even further.

I don't really get the purpose of marriage. Maybe it is because I haven't fallen in love or something but I don't see the point of marriage at all. The ceremony itself is just the most public display of affection that you can have without having sex in a public place. The only reason I could fathom having such an expensive and outright ceremony is to bless your union in front of God so why does everyone you know have to be there. People who have marriage ceremonies seem like they only want to show off how happy they are to all their friends and family and get presents from all those same people.

 

[GothmogII]

If gay marriage is legalized, then they should just legalize polygamy, and 70 year old men should be able to marry 16 year old girls, and parents should be allowed to marry their children. Where the hell are we supposed to draw the line? Someone please let me know.

We're supposed to draw the line at idiots like you. It isn't an arms race dude.

But it's a pretty good point.
Why not polygamy? Why not incest?

If two people love each other, then what's the deal?

Now I'm not in favor of polygamy, OR incest.
As for gay marriage? I don't care about that either.

But that does raise the question about where the 'line' is. You could say that 'polygamy' and 'incest' are a kind of common sense 'no-no'. But to many people, that can be said about homosexuality, right? So where one person sees 'wrong', another sees 'right' or 'fine by me'! And in this increasingly amoral culture we're living in, when do we admit we've conceded too much?

No incest, simply because it's been established that there is significant chance of serious birth defects through incestuous conception. Not as much as is publicly understood, but there is enough of a risk to the offspring, that it's safer not to encourage such unions.

No polygamy because, of the bureaucratic clusterfutz that would arise just to keep track of things. Who gets what when someone dies? Should they get tax breaks like two person families or not? Who is legal guardian of the children? Who becomes legal guardian should the primary guardian die etc.? What about divorce? Does a husband pay alimony to all his wives? Or in the reverse, does the wife receive alimony from all her husbands should they all divorce?

Anyway, gay marriage is still two people regardless. And while they obviously can't directly have children with their significant other, that doesn't mean there aren't still a wide variety of options available, from in vitro fertilisation, to adoption to surrogacy.

However, out of those the most problems seem to stem from adoption. I don't get it personally, I mean, I think the people in opposition are just 'thinking of the children' but then...I wonder how many people are just using that as an excuse to hide their own prejudices.

 

[Baby Tea]

I don't really get the purpose of marriage. Maybe it is because I haven't fallen in love or something but I don't see the point of marriage at all. The ceremony itself is just the most public display of affection that you can have without having sex in a public place. The only reason I could fathom having such an expensive and outright ceremony is to bless your union in front of God so why does everyone you know have to be there. People who have marriage ceremonies seem like they only want to show off how happy they are to all their friends and family and get presents from all those same people.

My wife and I got married with a ceremony to share our joy with our closest friends and family. Then we threw them a party with the reception. Did we get presents? Sure! But I didn't care about that, neither did my wife! It was just about calling together our close friends and family to celebrate with us our being married.

Also, I love being married. You know those marriage jokes? I don't get most of them, because I'm having a blast. I get to be with my best friend every day, and experience life with her at my side, and I love it. Wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[Imbros]

If heterosexual people are allowed to get married, why not give gay people the same chance/option? I'm not even pro-marriage in general, let alone not allowing other people to do so...

 

[Orekoya]

Why care, the argument is weather the state directly acknowledges the union, thus giving them tax breaks etc etc...

I mean do people really need the government telling them, yes you love each other, The whole concept is ridiculous, the reason the government acknowledges the union between a man and a women, is because it creates a stable structure for children to be raised. As far as I know the homosexual community cannot have children together, and have notoriously short unions.

If you want to get married and your truly in love, it doesn't matter if your gay or not, it doesn't matter if you have a finger on your hand, it doesn't matter if you have any children to put to bed, all that matters is that you love each other, you don't need anything more or less.

Well, if it doesn't matter and truly it doesn't, then what's the hold up on those rights?

But uh, "As far as I know the homosexual community cannot have children together, and have notoriously short unions."

#1 There were an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 gay and lesbian biological parents in 1976.
#2 An estimated 6 to 14 million children have a gay or lesbian parent.
#3 Between 8 and 10 million children are being raised in a gay and lesbian households.
#4 An estimated two million GLB people are interested in adopting.
#5 An estimated 65,500 adopted children are living with a lesbian or gay parent.
#6 More than 16,000 adopted children are living with lesbian and gay parents in California, the highest number among the states.
#7 Gay and lesbian parents are raising four percent of all adopted children in the United States.
#8 Adopted children with same-sex parents are younger and more likely to be foreign born.

As far as relationships ending faster, prepare for the wall of text!

Kurdek says in a 1998 Journal of Marriage and the Family paper that even though gay and lesbian relationships end more often than straight marriages, they don't degrade any faster. In other words, it takes squabbling gay and straight couples the same amount of time to enter what is known as "the cascade toward divorce." Straight couples just seemed more often to find a way to stop "the cascade toward divorce" due to more societal support. Over a 12-year period, 21% of gay and lesbian committed couples broke up; while 14% of married straight couples did. Kurdek has also found that members of gay and lesbian couples are significantly more self-conscious than straight married people, "perhaps due to their stigmatized status" and noted that societal normalcy might have actually lower this percentage to a level similar to its straight counterparts. Another peculiar trait is that gays and lesbians who exhibit more tension during disagreements are more satisfied with their relationships than those who remain unruffled. For straight people, higher heart rates during squabbles were associated with lower relationship satisfaction. For gays and lesbians, it was just the opposite. Gays conduct their relationships as though they are acting out some cheesy pop song: You have to make my heart beat faster for me to love you. It is apathy and lack of activity that murders gay relationships, not tension and stress.

 

[hippo24]

Well, if it doesn't matter and truly it doesn't, then what's the hold up on those rights?

But uh, "As far as I know the homosexual community cannot have children together, and have notoriously short unions."

#1 There were an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 gay and lesbian biological parents in 1976.
#2 An estimated 6 to 14 million children have a gay or lesbian parent.
#3 Between 8 and 10 million children are being raised in a gay and lesbian households.
#4 An estimated two million GLB people are interested in adopting.
#5 An estimated 65,500 adopted children are living with a lesbian or gay parent.
#6 More than 16,000 adopted children are living with lesbian and gay parents in California, the highest number among the states.
#7 Gay and lesbian parents are raising four percent of all adopted children in the United States.
#8 Adopted children with same-sex parents are younger and more likely to be foreign born.

As far as relationships ending faster, prepare for the wall of text!

Kurdek says in a 1998 Journal of Marriage and the Family paper that even though gay and lesbian relationships end more often than straight marriages, they don't degrade any faster. In other words, it takes (...)sniped

Well Ive never seen those statistics, nor have I ever seen(in my life) a homosexual couple with a child.
And As far as I know, the only way a homosexual couple can "have" a child is to either adopt, or get pregnant out of the standing relationship. They're not technically having children together because all the acts must be taken outside of the relationships.

Statistics such as this
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1502263/posts
paint a very different picture.

Personally I have no steak in this matter as I am not homosexual, nor do I feel the need to persecute them. What I do care about however, is the fact that they get enormous amounts of publicity while only representing an incredibly small fraction of people, they also get an elevated status when other sexual minorities are all but overlooked.

 

[LordSnakeEyes]

I'm personnaly against marriage as a whole, but if they want to give away half their stuff and live with the same person all their life that's their business so do as you will.

 

[Christemo]

im not happy for gays, but i got no problems with them (except i use many jokes about them).

id say its completely legal. except for Boy George, hes gross.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Personally I have no steak in this matter as I am not homosexual, nor do I feel the need to persecute them. What I do care about however, is the fact that they get enormous amounts of publicity while only representing an incredibly small fraction of people, they also get an elevated status when other sexual minorities are all but overlooked.

Really? Care to name some of these "sexual minorities that are all but overlooked"?

 

[NezumiiroKitsune]

Free cake?

 

[The Great JT]

Let 'em do it. They're human too, y'know.

 

[Ken Korda]

People are allowed to do it in the UK and our society hasn't fallen apart.

You crazy Americans

 

[xxcloud417xx]

Anyone seen Proposition 8 the musical? If not go youtube it. Not only is it very funny, it points out a lot of obvious things that people seem to overlook about the benefits of gay marriage.

Also, I would like to take this oportunity to use the universal answer to most human rights questions : "How can we, as individuals, dictate what another individual (or group of individuals) CAN and CANNOT do with his/her/their own body/bodies and/or (in this case) their lives?" To dictate is to go against EVERYTHING free countries stand for.

Really good answer for questions on Abortion too!

 

[Orekoya]

Well Ive never seen those statistics, nor have I ever seen(in my life) a homosexual couple with a child.
And As far as I know, the only way a homosexual couple can "have" a child is to either adopt, or get pregnant out of the standing relationship. They're not technically having children together because all the acts must be taken outside of the relationships.

Statistics such as this
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1502263/posts
paint a very different picture.

Personally I have no steak in this matter as I am not homosexual, nor do I feel the need to persecute them. What I do care about however, is the fact that they get enormous amounts of publicity while only representing an incredibly small fraction of people, they also get an elevated status when other sexual minorities are all but overlooked.

They "paint a very different picture" because the study was done by "Catholic Apologetics International" which is a controversial American apostolate(which is a group of people that exists to obsessively spread religious doctrine), in some measure of conflict with the Catholic hierarchy, who start out their mission statement with the following: "We love souls because of Jesus". You'll have to forgive me but I carry the HIGHEST doubts this study with done with any sort of scientific integrity.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

Well, I was having a meeting with god you see- he comes down every few years to check on how we're torturing people, and he and Lucifer like to have their sordid little fling without Jesus around, and so I asked him:

"What's your opinions on the gays?"

So he says to me "Who? Oh, those. Interesting little socio-biological deviation humanities taken there. I've got some people recording it. We'll see how it turns out."

So I say "What, so they aren't going to hell or anything?"

And he says: "Look kid, it's really simple. Good people go to heaven. Bad people go to hell. So unless your term for 'gay' refers to a person who likes hurting people, then no, they aren't going to hell."

"Oh. What about them getting married?"

"Not my place to deciede. You human's better make up your own damn minds."




Interestingly, I haven't figured out if Lucifer is a guy or a girl. It seems to just be a cloud of pure shining radiance with a pair of wings attached, and quite frankly I'm pretty busy at the moment.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

I might be gay. I am unsure, and I have no problem with it.

 

[hippo24]

Personally I have no steak in this matter as I am not homosexual, nor do I feel the need to persecute them. What I do care about however, is the fact that they get enormous amounts of publicity while only representing an incredibly small fraction of people, they also get an elevated status when other sexual minorities are all but overlooked.

Really? Care to name some of these "sexual minorities that are all but overlooked"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paraphilias

Pretty much everything on that list.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Personally I have no steak in this matter as I am not homosexual, nor do I feel the need to persecute them. What I do care about however, is the fact that they get enormous amounts of publicity while only representing an incredibly small fraction of people, they also get an elevated status when other sexual minorities are all but overlooked.

Really? Care to name some of these "sexual minorities that are all but overlooked"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paraphilias

Pretty much everything on that list.

Looking at that list, none of the ones that involve one person loving another are prevented from being married. And really, you are comparing homosexuality with zoosadism?

 

[xxcloud417xx]

Hippo24, Theres a difference between Sexualities and Paraphilias. Homosexuality, Heterosexuality and Bisexuality determine WHO you do it with, as in what sex.Paraphilia determines HOW you do it with them. So your argument doesn't really stand up. No one in the mainstream media wants to know HOW people are having their sex, that's why they get no publicity. The reason why Homosexuality is getting publicity is because its not an entirely sexual issue.