Gay marriage should be legal in all 50 states.

As my opponent says, gay marriage will save the economy millions of dollars. But what about religious beliefs and freedoms? The site http://www.billtrack50.com... says "eculiarity of the marriage equality debate is the fact that the most vocal opponents of laws legalizing same-sex marriage are the people who are arguably the least affected by them. It is easy to understand why some people favor marriage equality " people in same-sex relationships, and their friends and families who support them, have a fairly tangible stake in the outcome. It"s harder to identify what is at stake personally for marriage equality opponents, so their arguments are usually made on behalf of society as a whole. Their main arguments fit into the following categories: Same-sex marriage "de-values" traditional marriage; God says he doesn"t like it; Slippery slope to other non-traditional marriages (i.e., to animals, polygamy); It threatens the religious freedom of clergy members. The first three of these arguments hardly merit discussion"not because they aren"t contentious, but because debate is practically futile. The first two are wholly based on personal values and belief systems that are unlikely to change based on rational arguments, and slippery slope arguments are logically fallacious on their face. Even if these arguments were valid, it is difficult to see how the advocates of these arguments are affected " if your god doesn"t like gay marriages, you won"t get one; and if you don"t like the idea of polygamy, you won"t take multiple spouses. The potential threat to religious freedom, however, is at least worth examining because it could directly impact people other than those entering same-sex unions. The supposed threat here is that laws allowing same-sex marriage will require religious officials to solemnize marriages to which they object based on religious doctrine, require churches to make facilities equally available for same-sex marriage ceremonies, or at the least expose them to civil lawsuits for discriminating against same-sex marriages.[i] There is something personally at stake for religious officials and clergy in this case. Even most supporters of same-sex marriage would agree that this would be a significant transgression of First Amendment religious freedom as well as bad public policy. However, as one examines the various laws allowing same-sex marriage or other unions, this seems to be a threat in only theory and not in practice. States Recognizing Same-Sex Relationships Full civil marriage rights are currently afforded to same-sex couples by six states " Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont " as well as the District of Columbia. Two more states, Washington and Maryland, have passed legislation to allow same-sex marriage, but face the possibility of being overturned at the polls this November. And of course there"s California, where stays in the Prop. 8 appeals process has left marriage equality in limbo. In addition, there are ten states[ii] that do not offer same-sex "marriage" but allow same-sex couples to enter civil unions or domestic partnerships. These range from civil unions that are legally equivalent to marriage and even require a ceremony (such as in Delaware) to domestic partnerships that confer a more limited set of rights and obligations than marriage (and often stricter requirements, such as proof of cohabitation for a specified time period) and involve no ceremony, just filing registration paperwork with the county clerk. Religious Freedom Clauses Of the nineteen aforementioned jurisdictions offering (or about to offer) same-sex couple recognition, fourteen of them have statutes explicitly exempting religious officials from the obligation to offer marriage solemnization to same-sex couples. Many, such as Washington"s, not only exempt clergy from performing ceremonies, but also allow religious organizations to refuse any sort of accommodations, facilities, privileges, or goods relating to a same-sex marriage, and provide immunity from any civil action relating to such a refusal. The five states that recognize same-sex couples but do not have such statutory religious exemptions are California, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin. However, there is still very little danger that religious freedom would be infringed in any of these states. Wisconsin"s and Maine"s domestic partnership laws are explicitly intended to be much weaker than marriage. The first section of the Wisconsin law provides: "the legal status of domestic partnership as established in this chapter is not substantially similar to that of marriage. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as inconsistent with or a violation of article XIII, section 13, of the Wisconsin Constitution" (which limits marriage to one man and one woman"