Same sex marriage.

Round three rebuttals"POINT #1: HOMOSEXUALITY IS A MENTAL ILLNESS.Purely by definition you can tell it fits the description."any of a broad range of medical conditions (such as major depression, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, or panic disorder) that are marked primarily by sufficient disorganization of personality, mind, or emotions to impair normal psychological functioning and cause marked distress or disability and that are typically associated with a disruption in normal thinking, feeling, mood, behavior, interpersonal interactions, or daily functioning"" ScmiedforgeI fail to perceive how you have sufficiently backed up your claim. Second, you fail to address how this impacts the resolution and thus is both a bare assertion fallacy and red herring thus far. "Description A premise in an argument is assumed to be true merely because it says that it is true." [8]"The red herring is as much a debate tactic as it is a logical fallacy. It is a fallacy of distraction, and is committed when a listener attempts to divert an arguer from his argument by introducing another topic." [9]"However I'll gladly go into further detail. Homosexual teens are 5 times more likely to attempt committing suicide than their heterosexual peers, and apparently that's in a supportive or at least not unsupportive environments." ScmiedforgeThis is circular reasoning. Gays are mentally ill because theyattempt to commit suicide more often therefore they are mentally ill. "Mental Illness and Violent Crimes"The assumption that people with mental health issues are violent is deeply entrenched (cleaver-wielding 'lunatic' costumes, anyone?). It often leads to circular reasoning. How often have you heard people claim that committing a violent crime is proof of mental illness? 'Only a mentally ill person would kill someone, so anyone who kills someone is automatically mentally ill.' Leaving aside the vast majority of homicides which aren’t committed by people with mental problems, this isn’t evidence based."" [10]My opponent assumes the premise of gays being mentally ill by showing that gays are more likely to commit violent crimes against them selves. A more reasonable explanation would be anti-gay sentiment and stigma often from religious groups. Think of the WestBoro Baptist Church. [11]"The study, published in the journal Pediatrics online on April 18, was conducted in order to determine whether living in a gay friendly social environment affected the risk of a teen identifying as homosexual committing suicide. It found that teens in unsupportive social environments were 20 percent more at risk of attempting suicide than those in supportive environments. "" ScmiforgeMy opponent has provided evidence that the reason gays are more likely to attempt to commit suicide is due at least in part to non-supportive social environments and not mental illness. ""concluding that homosexuals are far more likely to engage in illegal and socially dangerous behavior than heterosexuals. In fact, according to the study, homosexuals are over 107% more likely to have been booked for illegal activity than heterosexuals."" SchmiforgeMy opponent has engaged in circular reasoning again. That only crazy people commit crimes and therefore gays are crazy.""The evidence indicates that homosexual men molest boys at rates grossly disproportionate to the rates at which heterosexual men molest girls. To demonstrate this it is necessary to connect several statistics related to the problem of child sex abuse: 1) men are almost always the perpetrator; 2) up to one-third or more of child sex abuse cases are committed against boys; 3) less than three percent of the population are homosexuals. Thus, a tiny percentage of the population (homosexual men), commit one-third or more of the cases of child sexual molestation."" SchmiforgeMy opponent has not proved that the men committing the acts were homosexual. Most rapes are committed for reasons of control and not sexual drive. Most likely the vast majority of men committing those sex abuse crimes against boys are straight."You can come to your own conclusions, but a spike in crime/suicide attempts are very rarely seen in groups that are not mentally ill." SchmiforgeCircular reasoning, there is a lot of anti-gay sentiment and stigma. "POINT #2: MARRIAGE IS A RELIGIOUS INSTITUTION.Judaism talked about marriage long before government was involved in it, (1550-1200 B.C) then Christianity, then Islam...so since the major Religions of today all believe marriage is between a Man and a Woman and religion is the core of marriage" SchmiforgeThis is effectively an argument for might makes right. That the Abraham religions genocide and otherwise beat into submission the other religions, thus their voice should be heard and not others. Many religions have vastly different points of view than the Abraham religions, some even think homosexuality is a boon and not a bane. "POINT #3: MAIN PURPOSES OF MARRIAGE/NATURE AND NURTURE." SchmiforgeSchmiforge tries to make some point about love and gays and straight, but I can't make heads out of tails out of the argument.My opponent then takes a source from the infamous breitbart. "RIGHT BIASThese media sources are highly biased toward conservative causes. They utilize strong loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes), publish misleading reports and omit reporting of information that may damage conservative causes. Sources in this category may be untrustworthy. See all Right Bias sources.Factual Reporting: MIXED"[12]Due to the mixed factual reporting, I think it is safe to say my opponent's claim is unsubstantiated and need a reliable source to be taken seriously. Second, there is a difference between a secret or closet gay and open gay. Most likely the study shows that the children are more likely to be openly gay as opposed to secretly gay. "Children of same-sex couples fare better when it comes to physical health and social well-being than children in the general population, according to researchers at the University of Melbourne in Australia." [13]My opponent then claims that children brought up in gay families fare worse. The above quote shows that in some ways those children fare better.Sources8. http://www.toolkitforthinking.com...9. http://www.logicalfallacies.info...10. http://grammar.about.com...13. https://www.washingtonpost.com...11. http://godhatesfags.com...12. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com...13. https://www.washingtonpost.com...