Poll: Gay marriage- your thoughts?

[Ohbaby]

I'm just going to put it out there. I'm gay and here are my observations and opinions. I'm really impressed and thankful for many of the posts that I have seen on this thread. While I cannot speak for every gay person out there, I can and will speak for myself.

1. I really doubt most gay people would ever "choose" to be gay. While things have improved with time, it is still not easy to be non-straight. If you think people are running around with arms waving in the air screaming at the top of their lungs, "YAY, I'm not straight!!!!!!!" b/c we are so happy to have grown up gay, you are way off base. It makes everything from teen years up a possible nightmare from the time that you notice you are "different" and have to hide yet another thing to fit in or not get hunted down and beaten. In adult life, you can still be fired, refused housing, and branded an outsider by almost every single professional and religous organization out there. So those people running around screaming with their hands in the air and doing it because they have survived and have learned to love themselves depite what society has told them.

2. Marriage is a huge right that we do not have. We pay taxes, we bring improvement and rises in property value to almost any developement we move into, and yet we cannot get the same protections that marriage our neighbors have? For those of you who seem to have forgotten what that extends, or maybe to young to know, that includes
a. large tax benefits
b. your spouses social security benefits after they die.
c. the right to inherit your spouses property upon death w/o having to fight their family
to keep it (esp if they are homophobic and spiteful) AND not have to pay gift taxes on
the property to own WHAT IS ALREADY YOURS!
d. the ability to visit your spouse in the hospital.
e. the chance to put your spouse on your health care plan (which is now available at some
large companies
f. the ability to take time off of work to care for a sick or dieing spouse
g. the chance to protect yourself and assets on both sides if (god forbid) you go through
a split.
That's not even 1/2 of the benefits of being married, and yes MARRIED. Marriage is the legal term of two people being legally bound in a relationship and has just recently been changed in most states of the US to reflect the religous view of mostly christian faith.

While I do want marriage, I would never expect any church of any faith to perform the ceremony. I am religous, and the church that I attend accepts gay people for the people they are. I think people against giving our equal rights are either under informed on the legal losses we have by not having the right or are just plain ignorant and probably would have been the same people that tried to keep black people from being able to marry white people. Get a grip.

P.S. This whole thing about gay people ruining the family and marriage have got to be kidding me. There are so many forms of marriage that are not religious, it's not even funny. And have you even been watching tv the last 10 yrs? With shows like "Who Wants to Marry My Father, The Bachalor, and wait for it.........Who Wants to Marry a Midget," you have nothing to say.

All I ask is that you take a little bit of time to atleast get to know the issue before you go for or against it. It might not mean much to you, but it's my life and possibly one of your kids, family members, or friends in the future.

 

[Bat Vader]

i dont care

if two people love each other they have a right to get married

I agree.

 

[uncle-ellis]

Gay marriage, is plain just SICK!! Period!! If I hurt your feelings well too bad.

So ur like what 6?

 

[hippo24]

You really fail to see the difference between a consenting relationship between two grown, rational and legally adult persons that happen to be of the same sex, and the acts you here mention? Really?

How is it any different for a man to love another man, then for a man to love anything else. The premises is the same, its for sexual desire and love. Is it any different for a man to love any other object if it sexually arouses him. The fact that it happens to be a man of the same sex is inconsequential because the basic premises is still the same. We are still not recognizing accepting or even making accomodations for other sexual minorities.

Saying that however, my point is to not create contrast but to say that we give homosexuality a free pass when we overlook so many other acts that are deemed "unacceptable".

 

[Ohbaby]

They should have a right for civil unions, but churches that disagree with homosexual relations should be allowed to refuse gay marriage in their institutions.

Except for the civil unions, I completely agree.

 

[YouGetWhatsGiven]

My religion believes that it is wrong. But when it comes down to it, they are humans too, so they derseve rights.

So you disagree with your religion and/or god?
You realize you are not a truley devoute follower then....
This is why I'm an Atheist Pastafarian.
Fyi I'm for it. I am just exploring my sexuality and I think I might be bi.

My religion is more of "hate the sin, love the sinner". That is what I mean when I say that they think that it is wrong.

 

[Chinchama]

I think that people shouldn't have a say in other people's lives. Also in the U.S. there is supposed to be a separation of church and state.

Also, I think any two people should be able to consummate a union and be miserable for the rest of their lives if they want to.

There are really no legitimate reasons as to why gay people shouldn't marry. Unless it is a fake gay union and two friends are just living together and got married for tax benefits. But I don't think the sorta thing would happen often, not often enough to matter anyways.

 

[Orekoya]

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

You're going to send a link from a website that admits to having a conservative bias, on the topic of homosexuality? Give me a break. I wasn't going to jump in and say anything, just read, but that's too much!

If you read this post

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.

Im not saying it was reliable in the slightest, It was more to prove the point that statistics on such a controversial and relative matter, are rather unreliable at best. So throwing statistics at me was about as pointless as me throwing them at you.

You would see my angle.

Oh, we can see the angle, it's just very childishly stupid. First throwing out the "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." then covering your ears going "LALALALALA ALL STATISTICS ARE UNRELIABLE SEE HERE'S MY PROOF!" when I mentioned that scientific statistics and studies prove otherwise.

You really fail to see the difference between a consenting relationship between two grown, rational and legally adult persons that happen to be of the same sex, and the acts you here mention? Really?

How is it any different for a man to love another man, then for a man to love anything else. The premises is the same, its for sexual desire and love. Is it any different for a man to love any other object if it sexually arouses him. The fact that it happens to be a man of the same sex is inconsequential because the basic premises is still the same. We are still not recognizing accepting or even making accomodations for other sexual minorities.

Saying that however, my point is to not create contrast but to say that we give homosexuality a free pass when we overlook so many other acts that are deemed "unacceptable".

Huh, so if someone's a coprophile we should fight for their rights to marry a fresh loaf of crap rather than them just marrying the person who took it?

I'm afraid I'll need that in a bumper sticker format.

 

[Lord George]

You really fail to see the difference between a consenting relationship between two grown, rational and legally adult persons that happen to be of the same sex, and the acts you here mention? Really?

How is it any different for a man to love another man, then for a man to love anything else. The premises is the same, its for sexual desire and love. Is it any different for a man to love any other object if it sexually arouses him. The fact that it happens to be a man of the same sex is inconsequential because the basic premises is still the same. We are still not recognizing accepting or even making accomodations for other sexual minorities.

Saying that however, my point is to not create contrast but to say that we give homosexuality a free pass when we overlook so many other acts that are deemed "unacceptable".

The difference between homsexuality and other acts deemed unacceptable is that homosexuality is formed between two consentual people of the same gender. Most other acts that society deems unacceptable such as bestiality or necrophilia are not allowed becuase they hurt or infringe on the rights of another creatures. Also homsexuality is the largest sexual minority and so that is why it gains more attenttion then other acts

 

[AndyFromMonday]

They are humans. Treat them like humans and let them have the same rights has straight people. I mean it's just fucking marriage, it's not the end of the world if 2 people of the same gender marry.

 

[UpcountryGecko]

I am for gay marriage, as has been stated by others what is the difference between the love of two people of different sexes and the love of two people of the same sex. Sexuality doen't affect the strength of the feelings coming from the heart so why should one group be allowed to be legally together and one group not?

 

[theSchlub]

I think the issue is a matter of semantics and the rabid nature of the religious extremists who oppose gay marriage in all forms. When you get right down to it, gays and religion are like fertilizer and gasoline: they just don't mix well. I personally don't care, but I concede the point that the religious right is NEVER going to admit defeat, and won't ever tolerate gays completely. The nice thing however, is that equality doesn't mean that EVERYONE on earth likes you, just the ones that matter. Religious fundamentalists don't really count, so just stay the hell away from religion altogether and gay unions will be perfectly fine.

 

[VaioStreams]

I feel gay people should have the opprotunity to go though the same BS that us straight people have. lol

 

[dantheman931]

I dont understand the point of it, why are the trying so hard to be Hetero? .

Is there a special benefit to being married or something??

because i dont get this craze for marriage.

Can't speak for the rest of the world, but in the US, there are benefits to being married, like being able to put your spouse on your health insurance and (this is the big one) life insurance. Plus, there are tax benefits. (EDIT: I just noticed that Ohbaby said pretty much this, only much more in-depth. My bad...)

Since I believe sexuality is at least partially a matter of genetic predisposition, and since I've never seen a single reputable source that can show that homosexuality is harmful to anyone, I fully support gay marriage. Religious people claim that homosexuality is an affront to God, but if people would READ the Bible they're always thumping, they'd know that eating shrimp is an affront to God too. Does that mean I'm going to hell for eating at Red Lobster? And it's not like there are only so many marriages to go around; giving gays the right to marry won't keep straights from marrying.

(And in case anyone tries to argue the point with me, the reason I don't support legalizing pedophilia or necrophilia is because those are demonstrably harmful; any number of peer-reviewed medical studies have proven it. Not so with homosexuality.)

 

[TwistedEllipses]

Go for it!

You might want to call it something else to appease the Christians though, probably won't do much, but hey...

 

[Bubbahotepp]

I am for it.

Gay's deserve to be as miserable as the rest of us Married folks.

 

[Rigs83]

Who cares. Oh wait, homophobes and gay people, I forgot after I saw how bad everything else that actually are important and vital to life is going right now. Maybe I am uninformed but two guys kissing didn't cause the Wall Street to crash nor did two women fisting in a new home destroy property values in Nevada. I am not gay ( I think ) but I don't appreciate being told what to do (especially when I am breaking the law) with my life and I don't see what right I have to tell others ( who are not breaking the law) how to live.

 

[ZeroMachine]

Since there is seperation of Church and State (or at least there should be, it gets blurred sometimes) churches should have a right to refuse to marry them in a church. But as for anywhere else, they should be allowed to. Love is love.

Plus, well... anyone see the short "Prop 8: The Musical"?

 

[Yukichin]

Prop 8: The Musical was hilarious.

Anyway. I'm gay, myself, and definitely for gay marriage. I'd love to be able to have pretty much everything that Ohbaby mentioned.

I myself am not religious. Buuut, I also think that it should be up to churches whether or not to marry a gay couple. However, it should be marriage and nothing else, I think; it's kinda like separate-but-equal, to call it something else. A lot of the fire around gay marriage seems to be the word "marriage"; a lot of people don't seem to realize it's a CONTRACT and not necessarily religious.