America Should Legalize Gay marriage

Since this is her first debate on DDO, I'd like to give her a warm welcome, and commend her on doing so well in her first debate. Best of luck to her in the voting. HappinessMy opponent claims that "the entire point of marriage is to allow two people to live together in a non-scandalous manner. " However, I feel that I have dealt with this idea. Clearly, having a list of people who love each other is a private matter, and is none of the government's business. Thus, there must be a public reason why the government recognizes relationships. I've argued that in the case of traditional marriage, this is due to its procreative nature. My opponent also asks: "Anyway, if you don't forbid them from living together as married couples do, what is the point of forbidding them from marriage? " However, I think I've also answered this question. We ought to forbid gays from marrying each other, since this would put gay marriage and traditional marriage on a legal par, and this should not be so. However, let's assume that gay marriage would make gays happy. Even if this is the case, this doesn't mean we should do it. There are lots of things that would make some people happy, which should not be legalized. Take child pornography for example. This would make lots of people happy, but it shouldn't be legalized in the first place. So my opponent's argument can only succeed if we assume that gay marriage should be legalized in the first place. However, this is circular reasoning. (1)Finally, my opponent compares gay marriage to slavery and women's suffrage. But I don't think she has understood what I'm saying. This is made clear by when she claims, "Now, they are discriminating against GLBT by saying straight people may marry, but different orientations may not. " But I certainly am not saying gays cannot marry. Just that they cannot marry each other. In fact, even two straight men cannot marry each other in my opinion. So this is not discrimination against their orientation. Moods, alcohol, etc. For the sake of debate, I'll admit that legalizing gay marriage would make people happier, less alcoholism, etc. However, let me put this into a formal argument to show you why I don't think it works. P1: Whatever makes people happier, decreases alcoholism, etc. should be legalized. P2: Gay marriage does this. C: Gay marriage should be legalized. Now the first premise is unfounded. Just because something may make people happier, decrease alcoholism, etc. does that mean it should automatically be legalized? Not necessarily. At least we haven't been given any reasons to believe this. Even if gay marriage does all these things, my arguments against it still stand, and would refute this argument. Gays having childrenMy opponent objects that gays can have children by egg/sperm donors, etc. However, I don't think this argument works. The reason is that the link to procreation is not inherent to the relationship in the way traditional marriage is. While gay marriage might (in certain circumstances) be procreative, this doesn't mean the relationship is inherently so. So while gay marriage might possibly satisfy the procreation argument, it wouldn't do this in all cases. And my opponent is arguing that gay marriage should be legalized in all cases. So, at best, my opponent has shown that some gay relationships should be recognized as a marriage. Building societyI am sorry for the confusing terminology. I shall clarify. When I say traditional marriage "builds society" I literally mean, it creates society. What is society other than the totality of people? Traditional marriage makes people. So traditional marriage, literally, makes society. ConclusionIn conclusion, it should be clear that gay marriage cannot, and will never, affect society in the way traditional marriage does. Traditional marriage is a sexual relationship between a man and a woman. Relationships of this sort are inherently directed towards creating people. Thus, it affecs society in a particular way. In fact, it doesn't just "affect" society, it makes society. On the other hand, there is nothing inherent to a gay relationship which makes society. While gay marriage may indirectly affect a society, this society already has been built by traditional marriage. So we can conclude in saying that gay marriage's affect on society is parasitic upon traditional marriage. Now it makes absolutely no sense to put the two on equal legal ground, since one is much more beneficial to society. It is similar to saying my "Right to text" is equally as fundamental as my right "To have a cell phone. "Since "legalizing gay marriage" means putting traditional marriage and gay marriage on equal legal standing, gay marriage should not be legalized. P1: Relationship A, which affect society more than relationship B, shouldn't be legally established as the same as relationship B. P2: Traditional marriage affects society more than gay marriage. C: Traditional marriage shouldn't be legally established as the same as gay marriage. Thanks! (1) . http://www.nizkor.org...