Same sex marriage

Thank you once again for an incredible argument and I must give you credit on that the hypothetical involving the kkk (my response will be stated later). As this is my last post in this debate I would like to thank you HermitBoy for the wonderful debate and to all those who have read this and will be voting. Now onto my closing statement Equality Earlier I had abstracted and taken the matter of love out of the equation because is by far in my opinion the hardest thing to apply a definition. Especially in the case of making law which you had asked me to do. Love is for the majority of modern cases the reason for marriage. Through marriage people are allowed to show their love for one another and this is the reason why the methods of obtaining the same benefits fall short. A dissolution contract or living will does not show to the public the undying love the couple feel towards each other. Marriage is a symbol of this love and I apologize for abstracting my argument to not include this but as stated I could not use this argument in response to your request that provide a legal reason to allow same sex marriage while not allowing it to progress further. On the matter of polygamy you quoted my earlier statement that one should be allowed to marry the one they love. This statement does not allow polygamy because I stated that one should be allowed to marry the one they love not the many that they love. Polygamy does not work because it is nearly impossible love a group of people equally even though it may be possible to provide for the group of people equally. Providing for a group of people equality brings with it the moral problem of deciding the value of a person as a means of deciding how large the group can be. Marriage is about love but as love cannot truly be defined it cannot be used a legal reason for marriage only a moral reason. Equality and destroying the institution of marriage Equality does have a diminishing effect on freedom but only on freedom regarding ones actions towards the public and not on personal freedoms. One can cater a same sex wedding and still practice their faith because religion is a personal freedom while how one acts toward the public is not. The service one chooses to offer to the public and one choose to offer it is a personal freedom while who one chooses to allow use of the service is not. By this I mean this is that I may choose to offer a service that caters to the needs of a target market that I and agree with actions of and I can choose how the service is offered but this is where my personal freedom ends. Once I begin offering the service the service to the public I have offered it to the entire public because of this I cannot refuse the service to any member of the public who requires it and meets all the requirements necessary to receive it (mainly ability to pay). After stating what I view as personal freedom I can now provide a response to hypothetical situation regarding the kkk. I would cater the event because I have offered a service to the public which they are a part of. Catering this event does not make me a supporter of the kkk. It only makes me a businessman who offers a service without allowing my own personal views to negatively affect those members of the public I do not agree with. This is because my freedom allows to have my views on certain groups such as the kkk but not discriminate against them in such a way that they are negatively affected by my personal freedoms. In regards to the religious adoption agency choosing to close its doors because the state required they adopt to same sex couple or lose state funding is discussed in link [1]. This article mainly states that the church should be exempt from certain anti-discrimination laws but only if it does not relate to affaires with the public (hospitals, schools, adoption agencies etc.) or if they accept state funding. The state cannot give money that is taken from the public and give it to a group that does not offer their services to the entire public. This whole debate comes down to 1 point Same sex marriage should be recognised by the government because homosexuals should have the same rights to marriage as the rest of the population. You say you do not care if they get married so long as they are not forcing you to agree with it or participate in any way. Legalizing same sex marriage will not force you to agree with just accept that people want to marry the one they love. Eventually society will progress to the point that people will disagree with but accept it much like how interracial marriage was not accepted but now is. This is because the government made laws that allowed interracial couples to have the same rights as other couples. During this time people were most likely forced to cater these events and provide floral arrangements. Now societies views have changed to accept this union and eventually if same sex marriage is recognised by the government it eventually be accepted by society. As you said same sex couples have gotten married, this shows that religious institutions have accepted this union already. Your religious institution may not have accepted it and so long as there institutions that do your institution will not be forced to do so. I have addressed this earlier but you said same sex couple can get the equivalent of marriage through legal documents. This is wrong they may be able to get the same legal benefits but not the social benefits such as the symbol of their love to each other or the acceptance of them through equality. You said interracial marriage was not allowed because black people were viewed as inferior but now that they are not they are treated as equals. I think this shows that we as society treat people as though they are not equal when we view them as inferior. By recognizing same sex marriage society is allowing same sex couples to symbolize their love with through one of the greatest institution of love and society will also show homosexuals that are not inferior. Child care [2][3] These sources show that homosexual parent are not necessarily worse than traditional parents and homosexuals adopting children provide a more stable home for the children as well save the state money. Conclusion Recognizing homosexual marriage will show that society views this minority group as equals and provide a more stable home to the children that may be adopted by the couple. This can be obtained without any negative affect on the current institution of marriage. Freedom may be lost but only in exchange for a better society where people are treated equally. Freedoms of slavers were lost when black people began to be treated as equals. This loss of freedom may be a good thing because it makes society grow and become a place where all people are equal no matter what their race, gender and finally sexual orientation may be. [1]http://www.harvardilj.org... [2]http://www.livescience.com... [3]http://www.urban.org...