Gay Rights

"I will state again that marriage is not a religious ritual.” Anyone (except gays) can get married without religion at all. I was stating that the rituals and the celebrations in a marriage can be religious, but it is the couple’s choice. That’s what I meant by, “The celebration of the marriage, the marriage traditions, the pope saying the "you may kiss the bride" all can be religious". I then said that civil unions can be religious in their rituals and celebration. You then turned my words around and said, “Then he claims that civil unions also carries religious connotations and centers all his arguments on it.” This is incorrect since my main point was that both marriage and civil unions can be religious and they both cannot be religious. “Just because civil unions can be done religiously does not mean that they have religious connotations since ‘civil unions’ are not considered a religious traditions. In addition, the church does not yet support civil unions, although they do debate about the issue. This means that no pope has sanctioned civil union.” Does it matter if a pope agrees with civil union or not. Since this debate is about gay rights, I think we should keep religion to a minimum. Can you state who thinks that, “’civil unions’ are not considered a religious tradition” because saying that marriages are religious is a stereotype. If I was gay and, my loved one and I wanted to get married and live the rest of our lives together, and finally feel the same as a regular couple. I wouldn’t want to be denied my rights because of a belief that people choose to believe in. “Why should my civil rights be dictated by your interpretation of parts of the bible that you choose to believe in?” Atheist republic.com. I don’t care whether some religion thinks civil unions are religious or not! Why create another system of civil union if it will be the exact same as marriage? As you said, “The government can pass legislature granting gays in civil union the same benefits as a married couple.” The only reason you have given me for not letting gays get married is because the word marriage carries religious connotation. You think that marriage should strictly be a religious ritual. And that in one of a religion’s bible it says that it can’t happen. Or at least you say, “And therefore granting gays the right to marry would infringe on the religious right of Christians as they do not support gay marriage.” I again, don’t care whether a religion denies people rights, I don’t care about the religion; I care about humanity and morals. I will state this quote again since I believe it states exactly what I am trying to say, “Why should my civil rights be dictated by your interpretation of parts of the bible that you choose to believe in?” Atheist republic.com. “Gays should fight for the right to enter civil unions that offer the same legal rights since there is no specific reason to demand marriage rights instead.” Again, why have civil unions if it is the same as marriage? You say, “there is no specific reason to demand marriage rights instead.” But there is also no specific reason to deny marriage rights besides what I mentioned earlier about religion. This topic relates back to what I said in my last argument, “It’s like asking, ‘Can I have an apple?’ and you reply with, ‘No, but you can have an opple, it is the exact same except a different name.’” “He therefore admits that marriage is a ritual since it has traditions and it also shows that marriage carries religious connotations.” You twisted my words around here, because I said that marriage can be a ritual like I stated in the first paragraph. Thank you, and I look forward to the next round.