Gay marriage

I will not introduce any new points in this argument I will just rebut my opponents points and then sum up my arguments. Rebuttal I am not limiting this debate to Christianity, I just used that as an example. It is the fact that the government refuses to legally recognise that gay people get married whether they are Christian, Jewish, atheist or anything else. "America is founded on a belief in separation of Church and state" This is perfectly correct and it is exactly why no religion should have any influence on who the government recognises as being married. "political liberalism should not force morality on to Christians. " It does actually when a religion marginalizes a group of people to the point where they can not live a normal life and they are pushed believe that they should just kill themselves because they are worthless then the government does have a duty to step in to stop this stigma and hate. "Marriage is not a human right" Wrong. Marriage is the ability to show you love someone and that society is accepting that you can make your own decisions about who you love and want to spend the rest of your life with. Marriage is a right and one that should be universal. "Christians have no right to stop homosexuals from adopting because of their faith" Yeah that's because religion has absolutely no say in the adoption process and so it should stay. "homosexuals have no right to demand to have the ability to a Christian service" Wrong. Christianity is a faith, a belief. Gay people are still human and therefore they have the right to believe in whatever faith they want. They believe in Christianity and they worship God and all the rest of it so they do have the right then to demand that they be given equal rights of Christian marriage as their fellow heterosexual Christians. It wasn't that long ago that the Lord hated all black people too. Whether you are black, white, gay, bisexual, straight, fat, small you are still human and you deserve to be treated as an equal in whatever religion or society you are in. "The horrific level of suicide amongst homosexuals has nothing to do with the legality of marriage" Marriage shows that you are accepted as an equal in society. When we have a society that says one type of love is not as good as another type that's when gay youths start to doubt themselves and can lead to feeling insignificant. This is why many become susceptible to the opinion that suicide is their only option. That is why legalising marriage can go some way to stop this being such a bad situation. "Atheists do not kill themselves due to not being allowed to marry" Atheists are not subjected to the same type of marginalization and they can get married. "same legal power" This is not the issue. The issue is that they do not have the same social acceptance and this is wrong. "the majority of these suicides happen between the ages of 16-24 way before the idea of marriage even occurs" They know that they are not accepted and they cannot be treated as an equal in marriage because their love is not as valid or it is wrong. "Suicides are due to ignorance and bullying from the general public" and this is strengthened by the fact that everyone knows gay people can never get married therefore they also believe that gay love is wrong. "The government needs to give homosexuals full rights in services they are in charge of and need to educate people. " Yes they do and they are starting to but what they are not doing is allowing gay people to have this status of marriage that shows that their love is just as valid as any other love. This has everything to do with marriage because this is about how we love and how we show that love. "as long as they don't impose it on others" They are imposing it on others by refusing to accept that gay people have the same right to love as heterosexuals. I have rebated the rest of this point. The whole of your fourth point is a bit ridiculous. This is a religion based on a society that is outdated by a few thousand years. These societal views cannot be used in today's society to pursue the marginalization of a group of people. If you understood anything to do with atheism you would not have brought this point up. Christianity is only a belief among certain people. Their beliefs should not rule the governments decision to not recognise gay people as having the right to get married. This goes for all religions. Summary 1. Religious beliefs are no reason for the government to dismiss the legality of gay partnerships and these beliefs are outdated. 2. As humans we have the right to love who we want and we have the right to believe in whatever religion we want and we have the right to an equal portrayal of the validity of our love. Gay people have the right to marry if they want. 3. The lack of social acceptance and the marginalization of the gay community leads to far too many youths to commit suicide. Legalising gay marriage stops this view that gay love is unworthy and lesser than heterosexual marriage which allows more social acceptance and less hate. There is absolutely no reason why gay people should not be recognised by the state as married couples and it actually benefits society to legalise marriage.