Gay Marriage Should Not Be Legalized In The United States

My stance does seem a bit confusing, I'm sure, to anyone who's grown up hearing year-after-year political debates on gay marriage. It's been a great moot topic for the last few decades. My stance is exactly as I said: I believe that the government should have absolutely nothing to do with marriage. Any legislation concerning marriage should be reformed. I say this with an understanding of the government's current involvement in marriage. Their current involvement is exactly what makes it such a problem to "legalize" gay marriage. It's not as simple as saying gay people can get married. There's an entire system of governance surrounding marriage that never should have existed in the first place, and it was all developed at a time when most people shared one definition of marriage: a prejudiced and bigoted one, in your opinion. And as it happens, I share your opinion on that. I believe that it is bigoted and prejudice to define marriage as something to only be shared between a man and woman. I'm putting that aside, however, and aiming to find a solution that keeps people from infringing upon each other's rights. You cite the supreme court ruling about the 14th amendment of the constitution providing a legal "right" for gay marriage. Well, I'm afraid that's not entirely correct. The 14th amendment does not say anything about marriage at all, nor should it. The 14th amendment simply prevents the government from making gay marriage illegal, as it should. The 14th is an amendment that restricts government. It requires the government to provide the people with "equal protection of the laws." "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States" Now, because of about a century of misguided laws that also infringe upon the 14th amendment by granting extra-constitutional rights to people who are married, we're dealing with some backlash. The nation's definition of "marriage" has largely changed since the enactment of all this legislation we've introduced concerning it. Like you said, there are benefits to tying the knot. Tax benefits; people who aren't married will often pay more into the tax-pool than married people. This seems great, until you look at it from the perspective of a person who doesn't want to get married. Imagine if we gave tax breaks to white people. Yes, many of these additions seem benign in nature, but that's only because they don't disagree with most peoples' sensibilities. Most people don't see these conflicts because the conflicts don't adversely effect them. This is the kind of reasoning that resulted in gay marriage being illegal in the first place. You said "I mean, it's been legal for 8 months now and the country hasn't burned. I've yet to see any gay caused riots in the streets." I'm sure the same type of thing was said when gay marriage was declared illegal. Lack of protest doesn't change the fact that the legislation is unconstitutional. Gauging backlash as a benchmark of success for legislation is extremely short-sighted. As an individual who doesn't intend to get married, I disagree with the government providing tax exemptions to people who do. The 14th amendment is supposed to protect me from being subject to law based on my marital status. Tax inequality was a big issue for gay people, not so long ago; why shouldn't it be an issue for people like me? The constitutions is about inalienable human rights, not about the rights of groups that are artificially defined by race, gender, marital status, or sexual orientation. This is the problem with letting government define us in any way other than as individuals. This is the problem with governance of our marital status. Again, I insist that the government need not be involved. Let people define marriage as they see fit. Let them write their wills as they see fit. Let people create their own documents to decide who manages their medical treatment. When conflicts arise, let criminal charges be decided in a court or law by a jury of your peers. That's how we retain freedom in this country. Do it to prevent the government from becoming so involved that it's unable to recognize when it's involvement is unconstitutional. Do it to prevent the government from believing it has the authority to make things like gay marriage illegal. Anyway, I've tried my best to articulate the reasons that accepting government authority on this matter is the same mistake that resulted in gay marriage becoming illegal. The benefits and conveniences are abysmal, especially when you compare them to the consequences of allowing this kind of logic to determine law. Skew it whichever way you like. Government authority has no place when it comes to marriage.