Gay Marriage

Thank you for your intelligent and well thought out response. Discrimination Now my opponent seems to think that traditional marriage is discriminatory towards gay couples because it doesn’t allow homosexual relations into the picture. Now, once again, before we can argue about what is discriminatory or not in the case of marriage, we must first know what marriage is and why the government recognizes it. Since the government recognizes marriage for the public benefits it brings, rather than the private relationship of two people, it is logical to believe that only couples that have these public means of giving to the society should be allowed to marry. This public means of giving to society would be the direct connection heterosexual couples have to the family unit, which the government wants to promote. This is why that we can logically say that things that polygamous relationships, relationships with animals, relationships with inanimate objects, and also of course homosexual relationships (I do realize there are other reasons for the exemption of some of the relationships listed) may be excluded from marriage without discriminatory means. This is because no relationship except a heterosexual relationship has the means to publicly support the society through its inherent connection to the family unit. Can’t Homosexual Couples Raise Families Just as Well as Heterosexual Couples? What is in question in terms of marriage is whether or not the relationship has a direct link to the family unit, and not whether the relationship can raise children well. This means that it does not matter if the relationship in question can raise a family just as well as the heterosexual relationship. Arguably homosexual couples can raise families just as well as heterosexual couples; however their relationship is still an inherently private relationship. Let me explain further into what it means to have an inherently private relationship and what it means to have a relationship that is inherently linked to the family unit. What does it mean to be inherently linked to the family unit? This means that your relationship, through completely natural means, produces children to be raised efficiently. We’ll use a married heterosexual couple for example. The marital relationship between a couple is obviously linked to love. Love is in turn generally linked to sexual intercourse, which is the most powerfully intimate way to physically express your love for another. Seeing that man and woman produce offspring through this natural means of expressing love physically, they also generally have a direct link to producing children to be raised by their mother and father. When you look at this from a general standpoint, you find that the heterosexual relationship has a means of producing a family unit completely naturally, and through the love of the relationship they pursue. The government recognizes this relationship to be beneficial to society because they want to promote the family unit, and they therefore want to promote any relationship that has this link to the family unit. What does it mean to have a private relationship? A private relationship is any relationship that does not have the direct means through the relationship they pursue to produce or raise children. The most key requirement here to have this link to the family unit is that you must be able to produce offspring through sexual intercourse. Any relationship that cannot do this is therefore private because they must have outside means of creating a family. The government does not want to promote private relationships because it deteriorates why the government recognizes marriage at all in the first place. Let’s use our logic here, the government would have absolutely no interest in promoting marriage or dispensing benefits at all if there was not some reason for why they were doing it. This reason is obviously to promote the family unit, which is something that promotes a healthy society. The Family Unit The family unit is something that almost any relationship can pursue, but only the heterosexual relationship has a direct link to it through the loving relationship they pursue. Now my opponent argues that because having children is not a necessity to marriage, we should therefore allowing gay couples into marriage. The reason having a family is not a necessity in marriage is because it doesn’t need to be a necessity. Since the heterosexual relationship already has a direct link to the family unit, there is no need to force couples into producing children. This also allows couples leeway and the free will to make their own decisions. I would like to note that the government’s main interest is not necessarily in the family unit itself, but the government is interested in any relationship that has a special link to the family unit. Since only heterosexual relationships have this special link, the government only has an interest in promoting heterosexual relations. Since the government’s interest is in the relationship itself, and not in the fruits of this relationship, this still allows infertile couples and couples who choose not to have children into marriage. This promotes the idea that the government is interested in the relationship itself, and not necessarily in the means of the end of the relationship. I await your response.