[mekrob]

One thing I've never understood is the gay marriage debate in the US. The main, if not only, reason that there is an opposition is the religious factor, in that religious people don't want gays to 'spoil' the sanctity of marriage. However, one thing should be pointed out: 50% of marriages end in divorces (many rather quickly) and that already spoils marriage.

Another issue that this reminds me of is abortion. The way that religious people now want that issue handed, at least from a practical standpoint, is overturning Roe v. Wade to return the decision to the states. Why don't they take a similar stance? Why not make the government only hand out civil union certificates and not marriage certificates? If marriage is a holy union between a man and a woman, then shouldn't a church (or what have you) ,and only that religious entity, be issuing marriages? Wouldn't having a secular entity stain the religiousness of the event?

This is one way that everyone can get "married" (civil unions) while individual churches and so forth can be as bigoted as they want. Most churches don't care about civil unions, from what I know. And most gays only want recognition of their love and legal status granting that (at least they'd settle most likely). It seems like a win-win.

[vision-master]

Medical insurance costs for Employer's is a biggie.

[Tyler_JC]

Could it be that there is a certain element of homophobia (or more accurately, hatred of homosexuality in general) is behind their agenda?

Many heavily religious folks believe homosexuals are sinners. Some churches actually try to "convert" gays into heterosexuality via intensive propaganda.

The discussion of "protecting marriage" is just another attempt to disenfranchise homosexuals for no reason other than irrational hatred.

I am a federalist at heart and do not believe that the federal government should be actively interfering with something that is so clearly a states' issue. That means all the so-called conservatives clamoring for a federal Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage are completely off base.

^my two cents

[Denny]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mekrob', ' ')Why don't they take a similar stance? Why not make the government only hand out civil union certificates and not marriage certificates? If marriage is a holy union between a man and a woman, then shouldn't a church (or what have you) ,and only that religious entity, be issuing marriages? Wouldn't having a secular entity stain the religiousness of the event?
...
It seems like a win-win.

[jasonraymondson]

Everyone should be able to marry everyone they want. The good thing about same sex couples is that they are not constantly procreating and trying to fill the earth with their spawn.

[Armageddon]

The average life span for a homosexual man is 43 years. Drug addiction, suicide, HIV all lead to this deplorable lifestyle. Butt holes are not designed to have weiners reaming them.

[Armageddon]

God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve

[Armageddon]

Take a look at my avatar. How can any man pick another mans hairy ass and balls over this beautiful creature ?

[PenultimateManStanding]

Does this even matter anymore? Can we take the peak oil situation and extrapolate? I don't know when, but there won't be any food in the supermarkets. The truckers will shut down, the fertilizer manufacturers will shut down, the farmers will shut down, the government will shut down, etc. People arguing over who can marry whom will seem pretty silly in those circumstances.

[mekrob]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')eople arguing over who can marry whom will seem pretty silly in those circumstances.

[Tyler_JC]

First off, that statistic is bogus.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')As Pietrzyk reported, Cameron was expelled by the American Psychological Association in 1983 for misrepresenting the findings of others and engaging in dubious research techniques. Among Cameron's "findings" are that 52 percent of male heterosexuals have shoplifted and that twelve percent have either attempted or committed murder.

Over the years he has also argued that gay men are responsible for up to one half of all child abuse cases (despite making up maybe two percent of the population), that they are ten to 20 times more likely to molest children than heterosexuals, and that fully half of all sex murderers are homosexuals. One of Cameron's "studies" included 41 gay men out of a total sample of 4,340 adults. Another was based on interviews with 34 serial killers. One of his "pamphlets" is illustrated by a photograph of an adult male arm dragging a small boy into a public restroom. This is what the former secretary of education thinks is social science.

Bennett's favorite Cameron statistic -- the average life span of 43 for all gay men -- is based on obituaries from gay newspapers during the height of the AIDS epidemic. Useful for some things, that plague! But even then, the statistic is misleading. As any student of these papers knows, the obit sections -- which scarcely existed before AIDS -- are primarily ways to commemorate openly gay people who have died early deaths. (An indication of this is that the same study found that the average age of gay men who died of causes other than AIDS was 42.) These neighborhood papers -- with very limited pages -- in no way attempt to record all homosexual deaths, and rarely do so. In fact, there's no database, in a still closeted world, that could. The statistic, in other words, is based on a skewed sample of a subset of homosexuals in a grotesquely atypical period. It's about as reliable as basing a statistical survey of death rates in the general population from people admitted to emergency rooms.

[killJOY]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')ake a look at my avatar. How can any man pick another mans hairy ass and balls over this beautiful creature ?

[killJOY]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')ake a look at my avatar. How can any man pick another mans hairy ass and balls over this beautiful creature ?

[jasonraymondson]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Armageddon', 'T')ake a look at my avatar. How can any man pick another mans hairy ass and balls over this beautiful creature ?

[Armageddon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jasonraymondson', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Armageddon', 'T')ake a look at my avatar. How can any man pick another mans hairy ass and balls over this beautiful creature ?

[I_Like_Plants]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Armageddon', '
')I think a lot more of this younger generations girls are become bi-sexual's. I hear it's the new "in" thing.

[jasonraymondson]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Armageddon', '
')I think a lot more of this younger generations girls are become bi-sexual's. I hear it's the new "in" thing.

[HEADER_RACK]

I think gay people should have the same right to be misreable as the rest of us.

[Quicksilver]

Once you alter the legal definition of marriage you will open up a Pandora's box. Other groups will inevitably push for legalization of polygamy, polyandry (the marriage of one woman with multiple men) polyamory (marriage between multiple partners) The list goes on. This is already happening in countries that have recently legalized gay marriage. The marxist elites don't give a crap about a bunch of homosexuals wanting to marry. They are only a tool to be used for the destruction of western civilization. Destroy the family in order to gain control of the society. That's been the marxist goal all along.

[killJOY]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')hey are only a tool to be used for the destruction of western civilization. Destroy the family in order to gain control of the society.