Gay Marriage

Thank you. Just for clarification: the BoP is shared between us. I have done a debate on this recently, so I will use most of my points from that debate and put it into this debate. Good luck to the opposition! I. Human RightsA. UDHRMy first argument will be that the UDHR, or the United Unions for Human Rights, shows that gays should have equal rights and are an equal part of society. There are a few articles in the UDHR that propose the idea that gay marriage should be accepted by society. Article one states:Article 1: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."This article means that anyone, no matter what race or sexuality, should have equal rights. This means gays should have right of choice and marriage, something they are denied. Straight couples have both the right of choice and the right of marriage, so it is not moral to deny someone a right just because of their sexual orientation. Furthermore, it is even more immoral to deny someone a right over what they can not control (being gay.)One may argue that being gay simply isn't a choice (to refute the argument above.) However, studies on the human brain have shown that a gay man's brain is more similar to a straight woman's brain than a straight man's brain [2] which shows us it is perfectly reasonable for a person with that type of brain to be attracted to a person of the same gender.Before I conclude this argument, I would like to state another UDHR article that clearly states that gays should have the right to get married, as should anyone.Article 16: "Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. [1][3]"This statement concludes that no one should be denied marriage, not even gays. The article prohibits discrimination against people. We can not morally (according to the UDHR) deny gay and lesbian marriage, as it would be discrimination.B. ICCPR and ConstitutionNow, we need to look at how gay marriage is legally accepted. The ICCPR is a legally-binded document that states what rights humans should have. This document, also, supports gay marriage. Article 23:2 states [4][5]:"The right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and to found a family shall be recognized."Notice how the article states "of men and women." This does not mean it has to be marriage between a man and woman, but rather both between a man and a woman and between same sexes. Also note that the article states that we shall recognize the gay's- and everyone's- rights to marry. I ask you, can we really disobey a legally binded document just for religious reasons?And if one article is enough, Article 26:1 more clearly states that gay marriage should be accepted under law."All persons are equal before the law... ...The law shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination."Equal under law. Protection against discrimination. These are two things that are not being done for the gays. They are not equal under law, as not all gays are allowed marriage. They are being discriminated against for something they can't control. Technically, not letting gays have the right of both choice and marriage is a direct violation of a legally binded document. Before I come to an end, the Constitution:"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."The basis and foundation of the U.S.A finds gays equal (and therefore should have equal rights). Do you really need more than a document that founds a country to prove my point?II. Opinions of OthersA. PollsIt is widely known that many polls have been conducted on gay marriage, with virtually all of them showing the same result: at least a 5-10% higher vote in favor of allowing it. 24 credible and official studies, all done by College Universities (Princeton) and research centers (Pew Research Center). The results are as follows [6]:Highest vote in favor of gay marriage: 58%Highest vote opposing gay marriage: 48%No polls that directly ask if you oppose or support gay marriage got more than 48% vote opposing it. If the majority of the population supports it, why should we rule in favor of the lower opinion? It would just be pissing more people off if we didn't legalize it than if we legalized it.Second, we clearly see a rising trend in the polls. I took one progressive poll from that website and made a graph using the numbers app to show you the exact trend in gay marriage views (shown below.) In another poll, recording a smaller sample size (2,000 people) had almost the same result [6]: Support: 52% Oppose: 43% Unsure: 5% Again, another poll shows that the majority are for gay marriage. There you have it, the majority of U.S people approve of gay marriage. If you want more polls, I can give you some. III. It's going to win sooner or later A. My third argument will be that it will win sooner or later. Since '08, 15 states have legalized or is going to legalize gay marriage [7]. Illinois is going to legalize it on June 1st. Second, 8 of the total 16 states have legalized gay marriage in 2013, which suggests that the gay marriage idea is getting more widespread. Out of the total 16, only 5 states have legalized it before '10. That means it is really speeding up. B. Now, allow us to dive deeper down into the statistics. Of the 16 states, 5 states legalized gay marriage by court decision. This means the court found gay marriage legal by law. Another 3 states legalized gay marriage by popular vote, which meant the people favored gay marriage. The remaining 10 were legalized by state legislature (kind of like state congress). Note that the numbers of the three decisions don't add up because I included the Civil Unions states also. Since there is no format for when I have to post my arguments and rebuttals, I will provide more arguments in the third round as well as the fourth. I thank my opponent for his time, and I thank you for reading! Have a wonderful day! [1] http://www.un.org...[2] http://news.nationalgeographic.com...[3] http://www.amnestyusa.org...[4] http://www.ohchr.org...[5] http://jurist.org...[6] http://www.gallup.com...[7] http://www.statesthatallowgaymarriage.com...