Same-sex marriage should be recognized in the U.S.

Since Con has placed upon me the burden of proof (excluding any positive arguments he might make), and since he has invited me to go first, I will post my opening statement in this round.I define marriage as a relationship which the government recognizes as a marriage, and upon whose members it confers all the legal rights, privileges and benefits thereof. As of this writing, the federal government and 42 state governments do not recognize marriages between two persons of the same sex -- including, as Con pointed out, my home state of Minnesota (although it is silly to think that more than a few Minnesotans will read this debate, or that I, a mere educated layman, should be making the case against the pending anti-equality law on behalf of the entire pro-equality community). Here are a few reasons why gay marriage should be legalized at the federal and all state levels.1) Not legalizing gay marriage creates second-class citizensTechnically, gay relationships were not even legal in the United States until 2003,[1] yet that stopped no one who wanted to have one, nor does it still stop anyone in states where laws against sodomy are still on the books. There are a great many gay couples who are in stable, monogamous relationships whose members have made lifelong commitments to one another; some have gotten married in a non-state-recognized manner, and many if not most would get married if the option were available to them. This is not going to change. Short of instituting an oppressive and near-omnipotent theocracy, there will always be close, loving and committed gay relationships.The state's refusal to recognize these relationships as marriages (if the parties so wish), while it does recognize their heterosexual counterparts, creates a category of second-class citizens. This is prima facie antithetical to basic American principles. 2) Not legalizing gay marriage is antithetical to liberty.As a liberal, I'll be the first to say that sometimes our individual liberties must be curtailed in order to ensure "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" for all Americans. But in no way would legalizing gay marriage disrupt the life, liberty or pursuit of happiness of heterosexual marriages. With one exception, all amendments to the US Constitution have empowered citizens in one respect or another. The one exception was the 18th Amendment, which instituted Prohibition; this amendment was quickly repealed, and is today regarded as a nearly unmitigated disaster. If the anti-equality "Federal Marriage Amendment" should ever pass, this would be a second, and equally disastrous in my opinion, exception to the rule. However, criminalization of gay marriage at the state level, or via Federal legislation, has the same effect.3) Not legalizing gay marriage is antithetical to equality.The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that marriage is a fundamental right of all Americans.[2] However, this right is denied to gay citizens. Two GAO reports, from 1997[3] and 2004,[4] identify a (non-overlapping) total of 1,138 federal laws that grant benefits, rights and privileges to married couples. Such laws include (but are hardly limited to) laws pertaining to joint parenting, joint adoption, joint insurance policies, immigration for partners from other countries, certain Social Security and Medicare benefits, property tax exemptions, inheritance in the absence of a will, bereavement leave, the Fifth Amendment right to refuse to testify against one's spouse, etc. This does not include state laws, or private companies' policies.Gay couples cannot enjoy the benefits, rights and privileges conferred by these laws. This is prima facie unjust. As a matter of justice, which the state is obligated to uphold, gay marriage must be legalized.4) Legalizing gay marriage is conducive to the well-being of the children of gay couples.96% of all counties in the United States, no matter how conservative, have at least one gay couple raising a child.[5] Regardless of how one feels about this, and regardless of how these children came to exist, the fact remains.These children's' mental health will benefit from having a clearly defined legal status with respect to both of their parents, which is especially important during times of crisis such as school and medical emergencies. Consider, for example, that except for a few states which allow joint-parent adoptions, only one member of a same-sex couple that is not allowed to marry can have legal custody of their children. If something happens to that person, his or her partner's grief will be compounded by the legal nightmare of trying to obtain custody of, or even visitation rights for, the children he or she may have raised all of their lives. This clearly benefits no one.In addition, inasmuch as a child's parents' relationship is more stable and secure when legally recognized through marriage, this child's well-being is correspondingly better.[6]5) Legalizing gay marriage is economically sound.To be sure, legalizing gay marriage would mean more government spending as the existing government benefits of marriage are extended to a somewhat larger population. However, this would be more than offset by increased tax revenue and consumer spending. Wedding spending for gay marriages in the first year they were legalized in certain states ranged from $5 million (Iowa) to $155 million (New York).[7] If gay marriage were legalized nationwide, nearly $17 billion would be pumped into the national economy.[8] In these times of recovery from the Bush economic crisis of 2007-08, such a windfall is nothing to sneer at.6) Legalizing gay marriage is beneficial to this generation's legacy.As recently as 1967, when the Supreme Court put a stop to it,[9] there were states that banned black people from marrying white people. Prior to the end of the Civil War, there were states that banned black people from marrying, period. Times change.In the last several decades there has been a steady movement toward the acceptance of the idea of gay marriage, and this movement is only moving faster. A 2011 Gallup poll showed, for the first time in the history of their polling on the subject, that a majority of Americans favor legalizing gay marriage -- 53%, up from 27% in 1996.[10]The gay marriage movement is a movement for equal rights, and no major equal rights movement in American history has ever failed in the end. Note that this is not a "bandwagon" argument; not an argument that we should legalize gay marriage simply because everyone wants it. Rather, we should legalize gay marriage so that our descendants, for whom gay marriage will almost certainly be a fact of life, will speak about our generation with pride rather than with an embarrassed cough.Finally:7) Legalizing gay marriage upholds the Golden Rule.This simple principle exists, in some form, in virtually every religion and secular ethical system. Would a heterosexual person want a legislature or referendum of mostly gay people to make it illegal to marry the person he loved?For the foregoing reasons, among others, I submit that gay marriage should be legalized in the United States and in all states and territories.[1] Lawrence v. Texas, 2003.[2] cf. Loving v. Virginia, 1967.[3] General Accounting Office, OCG-97-16 Defense of Marriage Act[4] General Accounting Office, GAO-04-353R Defense of Marriage Act: Update to Prior Report[5] US Census, 2000[6] http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov... pp. 26-27.[7] http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu...[8] http://www.forbes.com...[9] Loving v. Virginia, 1967[10] http://www.gallup.com...-