The revisionist position of marriage is worthy of state recognition.

I do, in fact, have quite a round ahead of me, so here goes. .. RebuttalIn my previous rebuttal, I showed that there are some grey areas when it comes to marriage and reproduction. I continue to maintain that marriage is not about sex and is about love. Firstly, I claimed that marriage is not necessary for reproduction. My opponent's counter-argument was that marriage somehow encourages reproduction. That was it. No further explaination was given, no causal links were explained, and no analysis was to be heard. The fact that some random person is now married makes them no more or less likely to want to have children. Even if it did, however, surely they would still feel that same marginal desire to procreate under a revisional marriage as under a traditional marriage? I find it hard to believe that, upon being given a revisional marriage certificate, couples are going to exclaim "Oh no, this is the same sort of marriage certificate as that held by a gay couple, now we definitely can't have children! "Secondly, I explained that marriage does not enable reproduction. My opponent's counter-argument is that states should look to the principle of whether or not the genders represented in the union are able to procreate, not whether or not procreation actually happens (or is even capable of happening). What he does not explain is why this should be the case. Why must people be defined by what they are, not who they are? Why does my opponent accept the principle that a lesbian who loves a transgendered male can be married, but does not accept the principle that a lesbian who loves a female can be married? Not only is that as absurd as it sounds, it also shows dogmatism taking precedence over "encouraging procreation," which my opponent was ever so keen on only one argument ago. Let's face the facts - marriage is not actually linked to procreation at all. The fact that two partners are not able to concieve children does not affect traditional marriages, all that affects them is the genders of the participants - but gender is by no means the only precondition for conception. If a single attribute necessary for conception is all that is required to make a marriage valid, you might as well legalise revisionist marriages because both participants are human. Thirdly, I explained that procreation is more than just giving birth. As I expected, my opponent's counter argument is that procreation is just giving birth. However, what value is giving birth if the child dies one month later? What value is giving birth if the child is abandoned, unwanted, unloved, and unable to fend for itself? Obviously it is of no value - such children are a tragedy, a cost, something society should strive to avoid. Therefore there is no value in defining procreation as narrowly as just keeping the hospital wards busy - it's about everything from the moment of conception to when the child is old enough to move out of home. Until then, they still need support, which is inherantly part of the process of procreation. Therefore I contest that my less restrictive definition of procreation is, in fact, more accurate and socially advantageous. Therefore, adoption is not irrelevant (because what happens after birth is part of the process of procreation), and IVF etc are not irrelevant (because pregnancy is also part of the process of procreation). When you marry, it is a requirement that you love your partner. You usually need to swear to love them until you die. Marriage indubitably both encourages and rewards love, under either of our positions. There is no requirement, no special test or examination, no oath 'til death do you part, no encouragement and no reward in marriage for procreation. Marriage is for love, not because society now thinks it, but because that's what marriage is. CaseLet me begin by reviewing my model. The harm is that some couples feel disenfranchised under the traditional model, leading to riots etc in the long run. The solution is to accept revisionist marriages. I also showed how revisionist marriages solve the problem with the traditional position. My opponent's sole objection to my model is that same-sex marriages are not the direct subject of the motion. This is true, however, this does not undermine my model, the subject of which was also not same-sex marriages, but the tangible harms of not accepting the revisionist position (which just so happen to be partly caused by couples unable to have same-sex marriages). With the states solely recognising the traditional view of marriage, the harm I identify exists, by recognising marriages allowed by the revisionist position, the harm does not exist. My opponent is yet to rebut the harm elimination, so essentially conceeds that (in this way at least) things are better under the revisionist model. My opponent also contests whether my model meets three of our five criteria (he conceeds numbers 2 and 5). I will examine these in greater detail. First, I had to prove the cost was justifiable. I justified it in two ways - the cost of accepting only traditional marriages being even higher (ensuring that no state-recognised marriages are secretly revisionist in nature being more expensive than just sending them a piece of paper saying "You are now officially married"), and the extra costs of accepting the revisionist position being neglible anyway (because it's not like the world faces a marriage-certificate shortage or anything). Both of these were ignored by my opponent. Instead he reminded voters that we are debating whether the government should recognise a revisionist marriage. I outlined the reason why in my model, and therefore my opponent is making a circular argument. In dealing with the first criteria, all I had to do was justify any marginal cost. Third, I had to explain why a slippery slope will not happen. I explained that the government only needs to recognise marriages between couples who are legally allowed to be in a relationship under the revisionist position, so illegal activities will not be counted. I further explained that the reasoning behind this is that even if pedophiles or any other illegal sexual deviants were to feel disenfranchised, the harm my model addresses would not accrue because they'd be behind bars. In response, my opponent totally misconstrues my argument, claiming it was based on inherant badness of some sexual acts. This is not true. It is based on the illegality of some relationships. All I argue is that if you're in a legal relationship, the relationship should have legal recognition. Incest and so on are not legal relationships and are therefore beyond the scope of my model. Fourth, my opponent claims that I have not done enough to battle the ideologies of the traditional and revisionist position. Allow me to first turn to my burden of proof, which is simply to show that there are more tangible harms to society for states following the traditional compared to the revisionist position, while meeting the five criteria. Once I have proven this, there is nothing more in the debate I need to do. Nonetheless I will answer his observation. My opponent believes that governments should value preservation of life above making couples happy. Firstly, that's a moral call, because government recognition of the preservation of life is not causally connected to the preservation of life. In other words, anarchy is not a contraceptive. Therefore any government values with respect to preservation of life are moral values, not ones with tangible consequences. Secondly, it ignores all of the points I made in the section labelled "Rebuttal. "With that, I conclude my case and look forward to another good round.