Gay marriage should be legalized.

Thanks for starting this debate. Because my opponent has not stated whether this round will solely be for constructive cases or constructive cases and rebuttals, I will be assuming that the latter is a good idea. I only have to prove that we should not legalize gay marriage. I can do this in a variety of ways, which will be shown in my contentions down below. Now, I did Student Congress debate when I was in High School, so I like debating as if I was a legislator, so I am going to be taking the stance as if I was a US senator/representative/whatever. Sorry if this bothers my opponent or the voters, this is just the only way that I can formulate an argument that is politically debatable such as this [gay marriage legalization]/-----Constructive CaseContention 1. Marriage in any sense is harmful.In the USA, which I am going to assume that my opponent is from, it is widely known that approximately 50% of ALL marriages end in a divorce [1]. Marriage that ends in divorce (as stated in [1]) oftentimes leads to a deficit in knowledge and academic ability in the children that are left behind in the marriage, mostly due to only having one parent or a divided household, or many other factors that come into play. We cannot, as the people that are trying to set up the laws for the US and the world (since the resolution in R1 stated that this is a WORLDWIDE debate, not only USA), try to make our future leaders of America and the world be left behind in divorce because we allow ANY type of marriage to occur within the world. Because of the serious harms that are presented by any type of marriage, I have successfully proved that gay marriage, as well as straight ("soceitally permissible") marriage are too harmful to our nation, thus we must negate the resolution.Contention 2. Poor parenting from gay married couples.This is moving away from the faults within any type of marriage, and is now going into why gay marriages themselves are not good for the children that they often have/adopt. Children that have grown up in a house that is led by a mother that was in a lesbian relationship, or by a father that was a gay relationship, have higher incidences of these key things than children that were raised by their biologically intact family[2]: marijuana smoking being arrested pleading guilty to non-minor offenses living on public assistance (note, not gay fathers, just lesbian mothers) unemployment (note, not gay fathers, just lesbian mothers) lower family security than any other group suicidal thoughts (note, note lesbian mothers, just gay fathers) depression sexually touched by a parent or other adult as a child rape (not victim blaming, just looking at the raw statistics) Sexually Transmitted Infections affairs that were committed by the child lowest incidences of heterosexuality (not inherently bad, but this leads to more children that grow up with the above bad things that happen to them) Now, proponents are trying to do something noble by coming up here and saying that they want equality for all under the eyes of the law, and I understand what their thinking is. However, when you look at the raw statistics, you can see that children that are born into a gay family (due to gay marriages/straight divorce that lead into gay marriage) often have a more troubling life than those of us who were born into wedlock in a heterosexual setting.Contention 3. Religious criticisms.I will keep this contention fairly short, but this is an important thing to bring up. Most of the US is Christian (77% to be exact)[3]. Because there are so many Americans that are devout to the Holy Book (the Bible), it is important that we try to bring up some verses that are in common knowledge that go against homosexual marriage. “Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin” [4] “That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires… women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other… men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other… as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.” [5] Contention 4. Sovereignty.I am going to keep this contention very very short, since it goes nearly without saying, but the US has to respect the sovereignty of other nations that follow a theocracy-based government, or a government that does not conform to the idea of homosexual marriage (and rightly so). Being a US representative (remember, mock student congress. Sorry if this angers you!), I cannot say that it is moral to try to make other nations, such as Saudi Arabia or Iran, conform to our new way of thinking. We have to respect that we are not representatives of Saudi Arabia, we are not representatives of Iran; we are representatives of a sovereign nation that is the USA, and a nation that only has the ability to pass laws that influence its own borders (mostly...). [1]: http://dailyinfographic.com... [2]: http://www.familystructurestudies.com...[3]: http://www.gallup.com...;[4]: Leviticus 18:22, New Living Translation, Holy Bible[5]: Romans 1:26, New Living Translation, Holy Bible-----Rebuttals:"Gay marriage legalization, is a topic, and issue that is being questioned at the moment, all around the world. Countries are unsure of whether to legalize, same sex marriage"People have been questioning to be legalizing the mass murder of blacks and jews for hundreds of years, that does not mean that it is a good idea...."Gay people, are no different than me or you"Other than the fact that their children oftentimes have self-destructive behavior and are often unstable as a result of their parents sexuality." It is a human right to have their freedom to love"We're not debating that. We're debating the legalization of worldwide gay marriage."but people are born gay, they don't become gay later in life"I agree. That doesn't mean they deserve the right to marry." Statistics show that 9 out of 10 school kids are bullied, beaten and bashed because they are gay" Source plz"They take their lives because they feel unaccepted in our society."I'm not saying that we should not respect people on the basis of who the have sex with, just instead who they decide to marry. Society rarely conforms to laws made by the US congress, in case you haven't noticed. Passing a law doesn't mean society will change overnight." Secondly, religious beliefs say that it is offending to the bible, but no where it the bible does it say to go against gay marriage"I have you a place where it does, so read my case, then get back to me. Thanks <3"Gay marriage should be legal worldwide because they are people and they should have the right to love."Again, not debating the right of love, we're debating the right of marriage to someone of the same sex."People shouldn't be judged or frowned upon for having feelings they can't control"I agree wholeheartedly. Not getting a marriage =/= getting frowned upon. Come on, this entire argument is baseless. I don't hate the gays and want to see them put to death. Honestly, I think that's a dumb idea, I still respect their rights to life and love, just not their right to marriage."we are not God"The Holy Book is the word of God, and if the Holy Book says that gay marriage is not good, then it is bad in God's eyes.-----Thanks for this debate. I love playing devil's advocate (look at my debate page, you can see that I am gay and am in favor of gay marriage). Posted this argument with only 400 characters left.