Gay Marriage should be Illegal (6)

Thank you for this debate. I will rebut in chronological order. To infringe upon freedom, an inalienable right, is a criminal offense both by government and civilian. The government is making no such endeavors to infringe upon freedom or the relationship of a gay couple. It is proven that the government does not do this. I ask my opponent to provide example court cases stating that this freedom is infringed upon or some other evidence than his word to prove that their rights are being infringed (please no unproven controversies). I do argue against Premise 2. There are requirements and definitions for most every license. It is not illegal to, and they can still get married if the desire, but do not meet the definition of a state marriage. However, in other states, it may be different. Everyone has an interpretation to a definition and with marriage government and some civilian opinions may differ. My point being is that the government must set definitions and requirements to distribute a license, and are not at fault if the people do not meet them. As far as the Harm Principal, your source states that the definition for the Principal is "The belief "that no one should be forcibly prevented from acting in any way he chooses " By going by the definition of your own source, your argument is invalid, because the government, as I stated before, is not forcibly preventing APPLICANTS of marriage licenses. My opponent states, "Its true that a law can and does exist that ban gay marriage, but you need a good reason for that law." I ask him to present this law now. I assert that there is no such law and therefore there is no need just justify a nonexistant law. I assert that there are only requirements. My opponent furthermore states he only respects laws that are justified. In this, he must respect that the state defines qualifications for obtaining a marriage license. In the same light, he must also be able to distinguish when they are purposfully inducing harm. I fell it VERY important to expound upon DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act). This document was provided to states so that if gay couples got married and moved to a state where it wasn't legal, then the state did not have to recognize it because it violated their definition of marriage. My oponent failed to mention that Section 2 (just stated) was a major part of it. Section 3 in whereas they state not to recognize gay marriage is solely because the federal government can not regulate marriages and to give a stance of recogniton would be contradictory towards states where it is not legal. Therefore, they are a neutral 3rd party. They are neither in support or negation of it and this provision was to protect the states rights to regulate marriage, not to define a marriage, since they legally can not. I feel my opponents interpreation was misconstrued. So, no, the federal government was not trying to exclude gay marriages because they can not. "The government can determine who can and can't get married." No, they can only set qualifications. My opponent sets a strong connection here that because gay's aren't included in state recognized marriage, it is causes harm because gays are being discriminated against and that is the reason they can not obtain a license, because the government purposfully worded it to exclude them. I ask for proof of this vendetta, and refer back to my Harm Principal rebuttal in this round in paragraph 1 and 3. CONCLUSION: 1) Freedom- There is no written rights being infringed upon. Therefore, freedom is intact. 2) Good Reason For Making It Illegal- I ask for proof of this law that explicitly bans gay marriage. I refuse to believe there is one. 3) The Harm Principal- This does not apply because, by definition of the Principal, it doesn't prevent the way a couple acts. This supports CONCLUSION 1, in that freedom in still intact. 4) The State- The state government has the legal right to set qualifications for marriage, and does not explicitly ban marriages, only setting qualifications for state recognition of that union. Thanks for this very challenging debate. http://en.wikipedia.org...