gay marriage will not have a significant toll on society

One of the reasons I really don't like those sources is because they seem to be comparing children with same sex parents to children with a mother and father. There are absolutely NO studies that show that children with same sex parents are at any more of a disadvantage than a single parent or someone with divorced parents http://factsaboutyouth.com.... That basically says that there is no proven disadvantage to ssm compared to any other family structure besides the traditional. Put it this way, I'm sure you wouldn't want to outlaw divorce, that is a huge violation of human rights. So why should ssm be illegal? Also a substantial number of same sex parents have been through a divorce before. Basically what I'm saying is that sure there might be evidence saying that the quality of life of a child with two same-sex parents might be a little lower, but it isn't any lower than single or divorced parents, and if we make society more accepting of same sex marriage, that will also help matters. And also, saying that if your parents are gay makes you more likely to be gay is total bogus. There is absolutely no reliable research that shows that(http://www.aacap.org...) pretty reliable source eh?, sure they might be more likely to come out as gay but that would be because their family would be more ACCEPTING of it. As far as illegitimate children, I don't think correlation necessarily implies causation, and even if it does, so what? Are we really going to outlaw gay marriage because in some country it was proven that it might have a chance of increasing illegitimacy? And it's not even against the law to have kids out of wed lock.http://www.capitalgazette.com... Okay now to your last argument, changing the concept of marriage. First, I don't even know how to respond with your opening argument: "if SSM was to be lagalized, less people would marry, thus creating less children and harming society." So basically what you're saying is that once gay marriage is legalized, there will be less heterosexual marriages. Well guess what! Legalizing gay marriage won't in any way shape or form change the number of straight people who want to marry. Just look at Canada, they have plenty of straight people who get married all the time, they don't have major population decrease and they're doing just fine. Now after that you say that allowing SSM will tell society that marriage is "optional." Well maybe you don't know but it isn't a national law in the U.S. to get married, in fact I know plenty of middle-aged people who aren't married and never have been. And btw, if you want to keep the traditional way of parenting, I also suggest you try and outlaw divorce and single parenting because there is no proof that those degrade family any more than same-sex parenting. http://www.bu.edu... Conclusion: Sure we may be able to find some study with a small sample size and not enough evidence to show that families of SSM's might be at a slight disadvantage but they aren't any more than a single-parent family or divorced parents. ultimately what it boils down to is the child's relationship with his/her parents. The parent's sexual orientation has absolutely nothing to do with a child's sucess.