Should gay marriage be legal in all states

From round 1: "I believe it should be legal in all states because band go against the constitution. " You've shown nothing to prove that legalizing gay marriage is in the constitution. "The declaration of independence states all humans have a right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and that's what homosexual people are doing perusing happiness." By privatizing marriage you do insure that homosexuals as well as many other groups can no longer be persecuted by the government. Privatizing marriage allows people more freedom to pursue the type of marriage they feel suits them best. The government would no longer be involved with or get to decide the rules of marriage. From round 2: "Also in America we have The separation of church and state and the thought of gay marriage being immoral and wrong is based wholly on what the bible says and that is involving religion with politics." Some people view marriage as a holy institution. The only way to take marriage out of a political realm where religious ideologies are used to determine law, would be to privatize marriage. I think homosexuals should be allowed to marry. I've shown a way to take marriage out of the legal realm. My opponent has failed to show why legalizing gay marriage would be superior to privatizing it and taking marriage off the government's hands. From round 3: "First without the government being involved in marriage there would not be marriage because there would not be anything binding the two people together so you wouldn't have a true marriage. " That's a myth. Marriage can exist without the government's laws or intrusion. I already covered what would bind people together. A couple ( or trio etc.) would be binded together by their love for one another. If the couple needs some legal protections and other things. They would then be free to form a civil union and write out a contract to each other. No government is necessary or even preferable for people to fall in love with each other and live happily ever after. "Second we would have twelve year olds getting married and divorced like thirty times a day so this country would be full of crap relationships and we also would have a rise in divorce rate." That statement is ridiculous and unproven. 12 year olds by law couldn't sign a contract and form a civil union. If they got married without the governments involvement it wouldn't hurt anybody. It would basically be a fun game of pretend at that point. Since 12 year olds don't have a ton of assets they could easily separate without involving the government at all. I also have no ideal what you're referring to by "crap relationships". I think it's just you projecting your ideals of morality on others. It's you infringing on my right to have a "crappy relationship". The last thing we want the government doing is imposing their own personal morality on society. My opponent has actually done nothing to support the hypothesis that the divorce rate would rise or even that the divorce rate rising is harmful. "Third your belief that we shouldn't have the institution of marriage has nothing to do with this debate " I'm sorry that you didn't get the argument you was expecting. Refer back to my definition of legal. Privatizing marriage would make marriage a right for gays. It would also take marriage out of the legal realm thus making it neither legal nor illegal. Marriage privatization is a reasonable counter argument to one proposing to legalize gay marriage. " it is extremely flawed and not well thought out" It's actually extremely well thought out, but since your arguments and rebuttals against it are extremely weak, the true depth of marriage privatization won't be shown in this debate. I don't mean that as an insult either, just a statement of fact. "We are talking about the fact that America practices legally binded marriage and the fact that we don't allow gay marriage in all parts of our country. So your argument is off topic to begin with but I still proved it to be unethical." It's not off topic at all. You have to prove gay marriage should be legalized. I have several ways to argue against this. I chose to show an alternative to legalized marriage that actually covered a lot of the reasons you wanted to legalize marriage. In order for you to win, you have to prove legalizing marriage is superior to privatizing marriage. Back to pro.