Same sex marriage

Quick answer to your Equality argument; Your main argument why gays should be married is that “one should be able to marry the one they love...”. But to avoid polygamy or incest, you are not taking into account love but arguing other aspects of marriage such as merging families and dividing out support. By doing this, you show that marriage is not or should not be all about love. Equality and destroying the institution of marriage For this section, I am going to combine these topics, since they go together very closely. Equality is a very emotional argument. It does really well when shouted in a march in front of City Hall, or spoken by a small child being interviewed by the local news. However, the equality argument does not do well when brought into a logical debate. I believe the reason for this is that equality means different things to different people, and when you try to explain or rationalize equality, it very often does not cover what the readers are thinking it is. Let me give an example. You mention that my arguments about how gay marriage will hurt the traditional institution of marriage are all discrimination arguments. I don't see it that way, I see it as arguments about freedom. Specifically freedom of religion. You would probably argue that discrimination is wrong on the idea that everyone should be treated equally. But let me ask you this question. Lets suppose that you run your own catering business. Lets say someone walks into your shop one day and wants to hire you to cater a large Ku Klux Klan rally in the area. Would you accept or decline? If you really believe in equality and non-discrimination, you would have to accept right? But if their cause is truly against what you believe in, and you fear accepting would hurt your business with your regular customers, you would want to decline. Equality and freedom are often inversely proportional. The more equality you have, the less freedom. Alexis de Tocqueville stated, “But one finds in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to want to bring the strong down to their level, and which reduces men to preferring equality in servitude to inequality in freedom.” (1) In my example, you can choose freedom to withhold your support for a cause you do not believe in, or you can choose equality and treat the KKK rally as you do any other customer. In arguing that I must treat everyone equally, you also take away your own freedom to withhold your support for a cause you find distasteful. This whole debate comes down to 1 point The heart of the issue we are discussing is not the right of gay people to get married, it is the recognition of their marriage. I know gay people that have gotten married in states where it is not the law. Nothing happens to them, they are not arrested, they are not thrown in jail or fined. They can live together and treat each other as a married couple with virtually no repercussions. Their marriage just is not recognized by the government, and the government is not forcing others to recognize their marriage. You mention gay couples having problems with divorce, and I assume you may also mention hospital visitation and other issues such as these. These rights are facilitated by a marriage, but a marriage is not necessary. For divorces, any lawyer could write up a dissolution contract between any 2 parties prior to a marriage, whether they are gay or not. That is exactly what a pre-nup is. For hospital visitation, any 2 parties can get a living will or power of attorney contract that is every bit as good and binding as a marriage. The benefit of marriage is that these types of contracts are assumed and a default part of the marriage contract. While marriage may be the easy way to go, it is a fallacy to assume that it necessary for equal treatment. This is why the comparison between gay marriage and interracial marriage is not accurate. With anti-miscegenation laws decades ago, an interracial couple could be fined, thrown in jail, or punished by the law. Those laws were based on the idea that blacks were inferior as humans. Aside from a few very extreme groups, those opposed to gay marriage are not making the argument that gays are inferior. They are making the argument that the act of homosexuality or the act of gay marriage is wrong and inferior to traditional marriage. Gay marriage opponents are not taking this stand to keep gay people from being together. We are taking this stand because we do not want the government dictating to us what kind of behavior we should and should not accept. If 2 gay people want to get marriage and live together, fine. Just do not make me come to the wedding. Do not make me bring flowers or make a cake for it. Do not make my church perform the wedding. Do not tell me that I have to accept a belief or behavior that I am morally opposed to. The examples I gave in the last round prove that this is where things are headed. You call it discrimination, I call it freedom of religion. If you would cater a KKK rally out of a sense of equality, then I can understand why you would think I am wrong in this matter. But if you would decline the KKK rally, maybe you can understand my position a bit better. Child Care You make an assumption that may not be correct, and is not proven by any sources. You assume that children not adopted by a homosexual parent would instead have no parents at all. Can you prove that assumption? If an adoption agency refuses to adopt out to a homosexual couple, how do you know they would not be adopted by a heterosexual couple instead? Often children who are not adopted are placed with a foster family. How do you know they would be better off with a homosexual couple than they would with a foster family? Let me revisit my source (2) to give a better answer to your point. Unfortunately, foster parents or not/adopted is not a category, except maybe as part of the “other” category. But just as a test, lets compare children with a gay/lesbian parent to the 6 other categories such as non-gay adoptions, step families, single parents, and “other”.(LM means children of a lesbian mother. GF means children of a gay father) Public Assistance: LMs are more likely to be on federal assistance than all other groups. GFs actually do well at being 2nd least likely. Full Time Employment: LMs and GFs are both at the bottom of the list of having a full time job. Unemployed: LMs are the most likely to be unemployed, GFs are the 3rd most likely to be unemployed. Had an Affair: LMs are most likely to have had an affair, GFs are the 3rd most likely to have had an affair. Touched Sexually: LMs are more than twice as likely to have been touched sexually by a parent or guardian as the 2nd place category. Children with a gay father are the 3rd to last category. Sex Against their Will: LMs are the top category who are likely to have had sex forced on them, and GFs are the 2nd most likely category. Use Marijuana: 2nd most likely for LMs, and 4th most likely for GFs Pled Guilty of Non-Minor Offense: GFs are the most likely to have pled guilty to a non-minor offense, with LMs the second most likely Level of Education: LMs have the lowest level of educational attainment, with GFs tied for 3rd lowest level of education attained. Depression Rate: LMs have the highest depression rate with GFs right behind in second place. I understand the desire to want to believe that children with a homosexual parent are just as well off as any other situation, or at least better than foster care or no parent, but that just does not seem to be the case. If you can prove otherwise, please quote a source. (1) http://www.columbia.edu... (2) http://www.sciencedirect.com...