Gay Marriage should Not be Permitted

Thanks to Zarroette. As per the agreed structure, I will lay out my case now.HOMOSEXUALITY IS NOT A CHOICEP1. Being Gay cannot be "Untaught"Learned behavior can be untaught. [1] Something that is innate cannot be untaught. For example, no psychologist could teach me to turn my blues eye brown or teach me how to turn my white skin chocolate, but they could teach me to not bite my fingernails when I am nervous. In this same way, homosexuality cannot be untaught, and thus is an innate trait. The APA, America's premier psychological association, has found that homosexuality cannot be "cured" and cannot be undone via therapy. [2] Other psychological experts concur. [3, 4] Even groups that have tried to unteach homosexuality have acknowledged their failures [5] and some studies supporting homosexuality as a choice retain only dubious credibility at best. [6]In fact, "since the 1970s, the consensus of the behavioral and social sciences and the health and mental health professions globally is that homosexuality is a normal variation of human sexual orientation...Consequently, while some still believe homosexuality is a mental disorder, the current research and clinical literature demonstrate that same-sex sexual and romantic attractions, feelings, and behaviors are normal and positive variations of human sexuality, reflecting the official positions of the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association." [7] P2. Biological PredispositionThere are four biological factors I will identify that independantly show a biological basis for homosexuality.1. Epi-marks. "Researchers from UC Santa Barbara and Uppsala University found a biological basis for same-sex attraction, locating the origins of homosexuality in the womb. Epi-marks, the genetic switches that regulate how our genes express themselves, can be passed down from mother to son or father to daughter while the fetuses gestate, the researchers found, adding that certain 'sexually antagonistic' epi-marks may also be involved." [8]2. Pheromones. "Gay and straight men respond differently to two odors that are believed to be involved in sexual arousal. The research showed that when both heterosexual women...and gay men are exposed to a testosterone derivative found in men's sweat, a region in the hypothalamus is activated. Heterosexual men, on the other hand, have a similar response to an estrogen-like compound found in women's urine. The conclusion is that sexual attraction...operates similarly on a biological level." [9]3. Fetal Development. "The likelihood of being gay increases by about 33 percent with each additional older brother...One of the leading explanations is called the maternal immunization hypothesis...When a woman is pregnant with a male fetus, her body is exposed to a male-specific antigen, some molecule that normally turns the fetus heterosexual. The woman"s immune system produces antibodies to fight this foreign antigen. With enough antibodies, the antigen will be neutralized and no longer capable of making the fetus straight. These antibodies linger in the mother"s body long after pregnancy, and so when a woman has a second son, or a third or fourth, an army of antibodies is lying in wait to zap the chemicals that would normally make him heterosexual." [10]4. Neurological Differences. "The hypothalamus is the portion of the human brain directly related to sexual drive and function. In the homosexual brains examined, a small portion of the hypothalamus, termed the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), was found to be twice the size of its heterosexual counterpart." [11]P3. Homosexuality in AnimalsSince animals would lack the higher-order cognition to make a choice between heterosexuality and homosexuality, it seems that if animals are homosexual, homosexuality is involuntary. Several animals have been observed to exhibit homosexual behavior, including Dolphins, Dragon Flies, Bonobos, and Rams. [12]INJUSTICEP1. DiscriminationPeople should be held accountable for their actions and choices, not for their immutable characteristics. It is inherently unfair, for instance, to deny employment to blue-eyed employees just because they're blue-eyed; in fact, most people would see the absurdity in this example, as being blue-eyed has nothing to do with one's value as a person. The same is true of discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.Denying gay couples marriage rights is discrimination, insofar as civil unions are a separated by unequal substitute. "The institution of civil marriage confers a social status and important legal benefits, rights, and privileges...Same-sex couples who enter into a civil union are denied equal access to all the benefits, rights, and privileges provided by federal law to married couples...The benefits, rights, and privileges associated with domestic partnerships are not universally available, are not equal to those associated with marriage, and are rarely portable." [13] In fact, "the federal government denies legally married same-sex couples more than 1000 federal rights and benefits associated with marriage." [17] There are myriad benefits, like paid leave, tax benefits, spousal privilege, other legal benefits, etc. that are denied to gay couples. [14, 15, 16] These benefits are particularly useful for those gay couples raising children. It can also be said that by denying such rights to gay couples raising children, that society unfairly discriminates against those children being raised by LGBT couples, and not just against the couples themselves. You don't choose your parents or guardians; they shouldn't be held against you.P2. Social Stigma and OtherizationMarriage equality is not merely an issues of having the right to found a family with our partners, but is significantly also about gaining equal status in society. Marriage equality, as I and others can attest, would be a symbolic gesture affirming the equal rights and value of homosexual unions, of homosexual love, and of homosexuality in general. Psychological evidence illustrates the powerful effect legalizing gay marriage can have on the esteem of gay people: "Psychological distress is lower among lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals who are legally married to a person of the same sex, compared with those not in legally recognized unions. The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, also has implications for understanding mental health disparities based on sexual orientation: There were no statistically significant differences in psychological distress between heterosexuals, and lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons in any type of legally recognized same-sex relationship. A large body of research has shown that lesbian, gay and bisexual people generally experience higher distress levels than heterosexuals due to social exclusion, stigma and other stressors. Research also shows that, on average, married heterosexuals experience better mental health outcomes than their unmarried counterparts. Since most lesbian, gay, and bisexual people are denied the opportunity to legally marry a same-sex partner, they are potentially denied the positive emotional benefits of the institution of marriage." [18, for further reading, see: 19]Ultimately, "restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples is an expression of stigma" [20] in society, and that stigma is unjustified. There is no reason to treat homosexuals as "other;" yet that otherization persists through formal differences in treatment, including lack of marriage equality, great ease with which employers can fire gay workers, and so forth. Striking down any of these barriers would send a symbolic message that this kind of stigma is unacceptable.Furthermore, the denial of marriage equality not only stigmatizes LGBT people, but also the children they might be raising: "San Antonio-based federal judge Orlando Garcia stated that the ban 'causes needless stigmatization and humiliation for children being raised by the loving same-sex couples being targeted.'" [21] This is, again, fundamentally unfair.SOURCES1 - http://www.mentalhelp.net...2 - http://www.sgn.org...3 - http://www.mens-wellbeing.com...4 - http://communities.washingtontimes.com...5 - http://www.speroforum.com...6 - http://www.scientificamerican.com...7 - http://en.wikipedia.org...8 - http://news.yahoo.com...9 - http://en.wikipedia.org...10 - http://www.slate.com...11 - http://allpsych.com...12 - http://listverse.com...13 - http://en.wikipedia.org...14 - http://www.hrc.org...15 - http://en.wikipedia.org...16 - http://www.nolo.com...17 - http://www.huffingtonpost.com...18 - http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu...19 - https://actionaids.org...20 - http://www.apa.org...21 - http://gaymarriage.procon.org...Thanks! Over to Pro...