Gay Marriage

First off, I agree on points 1, 2, and 4. But I cannot promise to keep rights out of my argument. Legal rights are of legal nature (obviously) so I will bring them into my arguments. But only legal rights, not moral or religious rights. Now, onto my arguments. 1: Why allow SSM? I will start off by reaffirming the current legal definition of marriage: "The legal union of one man and one woman. " This begs the question, what exactly is marriage? It is obviously more than just a "union", right? Yes, it is. First off, a legal marriage comes with legal benefits that can only be obtained through a legal marriage. Some of those many benefits include: some property and inheritance rights, even in the absence of a will, tax benefits, such as being able to give tax free gifts to a spouse and to file joint tax returns, discount or family rates for auto, health, and homeowners insurance, and more. These benefits cannot be enjoyed by homosexual couples, however. It is also a union which also is defined as a legal family. Why can't homosexuals have legal families of their own, through marriage and adoption? As of last year, there were over 100,000 children up for adoption [1]. Every state but [2]Florida and Utah allow homosexuals to adopt. But if we allowed them to marry as well, this could make it much easier for them to adopt, and make the number of parent-less children go down. Joint incomes, stable household, and married parents play a big role in adopting children, afterall. Homosexuals cannot achieve these without being allowed to legally marry. Homosexuals can live in the same house, with children, but cannot legally call them their children, and the children cannot legally call them their parents. Wouldn't it help the children to have a legal relationship to their parents? And wouldn't it be good for the parents, to say that they are the legal parents of the children, not "guardians"? To be able to say that they are a family? And again, the benefits of marriage come in, as there are benefits that could be beneficial to homosexual parents, such as laws that affirm the parents are in fact parents, making custodial problems a lot easier, visitation rights of the child, joint parenting rights, tax breaks, etc. These are available to heterosexuals in the legal union of marriage, so why can't homosexuals enjoy them, even though they are essentially doing what heterosexuals are doing? Raising a family. Furthermore, there is no evidence that homosexual couples cannot parent children, but actually, evidence to the contrary. [3] And so it must be defined by my opponent what would be the state's reason for not allowing SSM? 2: Right to marriage. The [4]14th Amendment states that "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States," nor "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. " First off, it is making and enforcing laws that abridge the privileges of homosexual citizens from receiving legal benefits of marriage, and legally raising a family. The [5]Defence of Marriage act makes sure that this is so. Secondly, it is denying to homosexual couples, the legal benefits of marriage. Again, the Defence of Marriage act denies homosexuals a legal marriage, and therefore the legal benefits of marriage. Conclusion-I have shown that homosexuals should be allowed to marry in the US, due to the fact that there are benefits enjoyed by heterosexuals that homosexuals cannot receive, and that homosexuals should be allowed to marry and have a legal family, as heterosexuals can. The 14th Amendment says that the State cannot "make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges of citizens of the US". These are privileges that heterosexuals, and heterosexuals alone, can enjoy. And as of now, there is absolutely no convincing evidence of why this should remain. My opponent must show why the legal definition of marriage should stand, and why homosexuals cannot enjoy a legal marriage. References- [1] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [2] . http://www.acf.hhs.gov... [3] . http://www.webmd.com...[4] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [5] . http://en.wikipedia.org...