Gay Marriage

Firstly, let me just mention that I’m in favor of gay marriage in principal without even the slightest hesitation and I can’t fathom the mind set of those who aren’t (outside of those who are against it out of pure hatred). The supposed urgency of the “movement” itself is what I will be critical of in this post.

One may ask why gay rights orginizations can’t simply focus on insuring that gay people can live toghether without legal issues. Yes, they’re lacking the benefits of marriage or a civil union, but then people are lacking benefits everywhere for all types of reasons. I wonder if issues of benefits such as visitation rights and shared insurance ever had so much attention before. Well if it really is about that, I can’t argue with such effort towards providing civil unions, benefits are benefits. But, it’s very much about marriage, that’s obvious. But, it’s not about the inability of certain people to get married in itself. There will always be people with such an inability no matter how the laws change if for no other reason than that some people can’t convince anyone to marry them. That issue can never be solved but it can be helped through public awareness of the problem, if it is indeed a problem. But, I hear nothing about helping people with marriage as an all encompassing issue.

So what the issue that is getting so much attention right now is about is not about measurably things such as benefits, nor is it about the ability of some to do something they before couldn’t, it’s simply about rights. Many people want the government to shows gay people the respect to allow them to marry. That makes sense, I know full well that it hurts to think that ithe government’s laws discriminate against various people for various reasons.

So is this fight for gay marriage just one more step after so many others originating in the 50s and earlier towards equality? I’m far from a civil rights historian, but I know as much about the American civil rights movements as the average person. So let’s explore what they were about:

African-Americans were on average getting shit compared to the average “white” person. I hardly need to expand apon that. Women on average were getting shit compared to the average man when it came to persuing a career. The disabled on average always have and always will get shit compared to the average “healthy” person, but now they often have a much better chance at employment, there’s much more accesibility, and other issues that I can’t recall at the moment.

Now let’s look at what gay people experienced on average. Well a long story short read a short biography of Alan Turing. Gay rights are very much a worthy cause in respect to such abuses by society. All the groups I mentioned and many more have made considerable progress and there is still progress to be made. Maybe someone can clarify this form me but I don’t know the exact timeline of the progress of the gay rights movement as that it apperently wasn’t among those most focused on in the 60s. Some people have been saying that we’re in middle of a civil rights movement right now; not quit equating the fight for gay marriage to the 60s but coming close. But, the worst of the legal obstacles against the pursuit of happyness for gay people seems to hae been long over, at least in most states. So how are we in middle of one? It seems we are just working on the, not so much minor, but less pressing issues that are remaining. Hardly a call for such publicity relative to past abuses among laws disfavoring gay people and other classifications of people.

So in conclusion I wonder if anyone would agree that the issue of gay marriage should simply work itself out over the next 10-20 years rather than fighting for predominant attention among the far more worthy social issues that are currently in question.

Its about prohibiting specifically their right to marry. Most states have on their constitution that only a woman and man may marry. This is esentially saying back of the bus. It has a real rights value. It is about making equal not second class citizens. It is a basic freedom that is involved.

Everyone who’s not confind to bed etc. are able to ride the bus. So with such a large part of the general public being able to ride the bus, I can certainly understand how it was such a deeply felt insult to be forced to the back or to stand because of some distinction that other make about oneself. But, marriage is a different issue entirely. Marriage seems to be available to most hetero-sexuals on the surface, but there are obviously so many that have never had the chance to marry. Men who don’t marry get off easy as far as society is concerned they are simply a bachelor, actually jokingly envied by many married men. Women who don’t are often called “spinsters” and “old maids”. But, I hardly doubt that more than 10% of people who never marry do so by choice, rather than lack of opportunity. The defining issue it would seem is that some can’t marry simply because noone will agree to marry them, while gay people can’t or couldn’t marry because of the law.

Answer this question for me please. Once gay people have the unquestionable federal and all 50 states rights to marriage, do you see the various gay rights orginizations trying to help people (gay or not) without many opportunities to marry, for whatever reason, to do so?

Ok really I have no clue wether your question is serious or tongue-in-cheek. The only way I can answer is: Do you want them to set up dating services?
One is about law, the other is about crap shooting.
One law prohibition, the other is about choices or lack of appeal.
One is about civil rights the other is just too damn many competitors.
What do you want done for those that can’t find mates? Force matrimony?

Sorry to burst your Whiggish bubble of pretend progress.
Many of the reforms that Harvey Milk managed to secure for States-based laws protecting gay rights, have been overturned by the growing Christian Right, and the situation has gone backwards.
SO, no, I doubt it will work itself out. You might have said that with some conviction 10 years ago, but not now.

On the issue of getting rights, and what about single people; it seems to me that the rights only relate to people who have a partner and can’t have shared resources such as the chance of loosing the home upon death , and passing on insurance and pension rights, which simply do not apply to singles.

Pfft the religious right are less popular than the gays now, we know at least progress has been made. The right to get married I care nothing about up to a point. The right to not be subject to bullying by idiots, well that is a right we need to acknowledge. Sometimes I wish I was gay, for the sole reason it would teach me to be a better person than I am. Persecution strengthens the mind and the soul, something religious people would do well not to forget.

Not so much tongue in cheek, but I meant the question to be mostly retorical, being that the answer is obviously “no”. What can they do, what can anyone do? Some people lives are seriously fucked up in ways that laws can never make ammends for, and lawmakers probably shouldn’t even try. I don’t expect them to care about “unmarriable” people, no one expects that. The problem is gay rights orginazation’s retoric, “right to marriage”, “why don’t you think I deserve to be married?” and so on constantly. I do understand that they want to be respected and allowed to be recognized as married by the government, I also recognize that overweight people want to be respected by airlines inclined to make their seats to small, and any low income person’s rights to get well deserved benefits without enourmous paperwork and obstacles. But, why must the right to marriage cause be at the front of the line? I can hardly blame the actual people waiting for a chance to marry their partner, that’s just natural self-interest at work. I pay 15 dollars for lunch, rather than three and donating the remaining 12 to the homeless in my town, because I’m self-interested. What I don’t understand is why some many people, gay or not, who wouldn’t benefit from the laws changing in this regard, are so quick to state the importance of this cause relative to others.

Having rented my whole life I couldn’t give a flying fuck about someone losing their home. Now, you are telling me that progress isn’t what it should be. Ok, I admit in the OP I was unclear on the exact state of the gay rights movement. I don’t know why you bring up SF’s Milk, the gay rights movement is doing great in everything except the issue of marriage in CA. Certainly I imagine many states have hardly left the 50s in those regards. But, why don’t the gay rights organizations stand up for them? If they are being harrased for being gay in various states then why isn’t that their issue? Try to legalized gay marriage when a gay person is just afraid to openly date is some states seems to me like mowing your grass because your house is about to fall over. And if anyone can afford a house in the first place it would seem to me that this country and it’s laws have been pretty damn good to them. Disadvantaged people are usually know for living in slums. I spend and spent much time with people that have been fucked over by society or misfortune in everyway imaginable, never once has one told me that they’re happy that at least society allowed them to marry.

I’m not sure that’s true or exactly what you mean.

Exactly, if I’m married I’m married, I don’t need a legal marriage license or some church to varify that. If know one esle would have performed the ceremony I would have payed my neighbor five dollars to. Shared insurance is great, maybe someday that will benefit me and my wife, but we’re uninsured, imagine how much we care about that right we can’t use!

Exactly, here in CA at least their have been ad caimpaigns to get people to stop using the word gay as an adjective for something or someone who is stupid. Great. I can’t imagine how mad it must make gay people, when they walk out of a bad movie and everyone is shaking their heads saying, “that movie was so gay.” Oh wait! I can. I used to be overweight, I was called every shit name regarding that there is, I see commercials trying to stop obseity I never saw one trying to address the name calling. (As if name-calling were the most pressing issue in society.)

Christians don’t forget, it’s in the New Testement over and over, they remember very well, I mean that’s the problem, “I forgot”, is always a good excuse, I never won an argument with soemone who forgot, but they damn well didn’t forget…

What about the legal issues of progeny? What about wills and heirs? What about the simple basic right to marry if you choose? Right now it is LAW that they cannot have such a simple right. That alone forces them into second class citizenry. Its wrong, dead wrong.

Can a heterosexual couple get a civil union? If not, why not?

What is the status of someone who has had a sex change? Are they still legally the sex they were classed as at birth? If not, and their sex is legally changed, what happens if the sex change operation takes place after the person is already married? Does it dissolve the marriage?

What about polygamy, or polyandry (the reverse of polygamy)? Are such marriages also to be legally recognised now? After all, they are common in other cultures.

How about if we combine polyandry and polygamy, and have marriages between a large group of people? Should there be an arbitrary limit on the numbers? If not, could everyone get married to everyone else?

Should consenting adults be allowed to marry regardless of anything else, such as being siblings, or parent and (grown up) child? Could one marry one’s own offspring, thereby circumventing death taxes? Could this marriage then continue down the generations?

I am not in any way anti gay, and believe they should have full civil and financial rights in their unions. But it’s this idea that what they have can be called “marriage” that seems problematic to me, for all the reasons stated above. If we redefine marriage one way, how about in all those other ways?

Having said all that, it’s not an issue I have strong opinions about, and if they want to call it that, I won’t object.

I think you are dead wrong about the popularity of the religious right and gays, and the evidence is that most states have gone backwards since gay rights were first established.

Thank you - for your confused and aggressive response. The reason I mentioned Milk was because his movement helped to establish gay rights, but those rights have since been overturned in many of the states that originally changed.

So you are poor and alone and renting.
Now imagine that you have a wife and child that you are providing for and you manage to pay for some life insurance - your wife would get that. If your partner were a man he would not.
It seems you are only interested in yourself, which makes me puzzled why you started this thread is not to attack gay rights.

You know darn well why incest is illegal, dangerous health problems. I and my boss have 20 surviving cats out of about 50 that were born in her mother-in-law’s feral inbred cat colony that proves incest is dangerous, humans are no different. The kittens that survived are puny sickly 4 year olds and are already dying off.
As far as the other types, As long as all are legal consenting adults, I really could not care less.
Civil unions are not civil legal marriages with the government rights, taxes and laws to give benefits.
All they want is the same rights as heterosexual couples. Its dead wrong to deny them that.

So many misconceptions, so little time to waste.

Not even near. This is just an example of a post hoc scientific rationalisation.
The fact is 1) incest does not have to include children, so why illegal.
2) The simple fact is that animal breeders have been doing incest to preserve certain traits that have given us the enormous range of domesticated varieties from cats, to sheep to pidgins. It is also very common amongst wild animals, then not usually being aware of filial relationships.
And 99% of the time produces perfectly healthy offspring. There are only dangers when genetic weaknesses are present, and as a matter of fact, incest is the best way to weed out such things by the failure due to the combination of weakness, and are thus evolved out more quickly.
The fact is that incest has been taboo, in cultures far and wide, none of whom have the slightest idea that incest might be unhealthy. As they never do it they would never have to chance to find out.
According to anthropologists who have studied this, the reason for laws against incest has more to do with exogamy being used as a practice to extend the tribe’s power and influence and for parents to gain dowry price from outside the immediate family.
Incest is a social taboo, not a scientific one.

One example does not represent sufficient evidence.

Hobbes, read my responce to Hel. Also, you still didn’t address the key argument I was making in my frantic barely lucid, wild-eyed and mean-spirited responce to you; why focus on marriage if some gay people can’t even date without harrasment?

Maia, the discussion that you brought up is a very interesting one. I understand the distinction you make between allowing civil unions for any two people while marriages for only some, but still that some should include gay people in my opinion (yes, if anyone forgot the first line of my OP I’m for gay marriage in principal). I think though the most ludicris thing about this argument on marriage versus civil unions is people’s obsession with the governments terminology. I’m not a party nor an applicant, or any of the other bullshit names that may be given to me in legal contracts, but I hardly complain. Let the governent label things as they want.

I understand the problem you speak of, that people will be demanding other new forms of marriage more because of gay marriage. Perhaps, Kriswest is right about the clear distinction between gay marriage and the other forms you speak of, but I think the solution would be simple. The laws should be changed so that noone can be recognized as married by the government. Let the government provide civil unions for everyone and their dog (literally, in that a dog might be provided a home in a nice “dog resort” with their owner’s money if their owner dies).

Then let people define marriage however they want. Conservatives won’t recognize gay marriage or any other “non traditional” marriage. It doesn’t matter, if a conservative is working as say a social worker they must speak in terms of civil partner for everyone. Personally, I’ll only consider myself married and all duplex apartment buildings married (also insects stuck to my windshield) just to show my disdain for people’s obsession with terminology.

I can’t argue with any of that, they could be considered second class citizens and it is dead wrong. But, no doubt I could be considered a second class citizen, me and 50-100 million other Americans who suffer one form of unaddressed shit or another.

But, do you have laws prohibiting basic rights to you.

It was a joke and we basically agree so. :slight_smile:

btw we use ghey here, the bad ghey not the good gay. If there is some chance that some bigoted retard will take it not as it was meant. :slight_smile:

My old boss in San Francisco was legally married. It wasn’t the end of the world for me, and I accepted it as such… he was also a Roman Catholic that went to church every sunday… I didn’t go to church every Sunday.

Being gay in and of itself in isolation is about as much of a nuisance as someone who breaks other rules more out of compulsion than because they want to, as far as I am concerned. Say your a kleptomaniac… yes, it’s wrong to steal, but if you got a real condition, than it’s understandable… try to wittle it down to something like stealing individual grapes off the stem in the grocery store, or going into the DMV to take pens.

Homosexuality is obviously a no-no in the judeo-christian tradition… however, it also needs to be noted that the Jews from day one had a long association with the city of Sodom, and openly traded with them, and had in general good relations. They were not individually less than human, however, the culture did causes some obvious ethical issues in relationship to man’s relationship creation- it was antithetical to anything resembling man’s purpose, it’s was purely hedonistic, and didn’t contribute positively to survival and continuation.

We can see the negative impact in San Francisco of this culture- it’s one of the worst segregated communities in the country- the wealthy middle class- with it’s strong gay core and isolated aesthetics that effectively shut out and prey on the poor vs the outlying regions, that’s largely ethnic, kept down and repressed. The wealth is pouring into a portion of the population that DOESN’T REPRODUCE… they die, and the money doesn’t go to their children, because they had none. It’s a culture of hedonistic sterility, and the ‘poor’ who do produce children are left to fend for themselves, hoping for momma socialism, promised by the gay caste, to save them.

As a result, there is a massive homeless population- a huge portion of which is absorbed in a drug culture that exists paralell to the drug culture of the gay caste, but still separate. They don’t rub shoulders, they just glare at one another. Alot of violence and crime, and a underground slave culture of illegal migrants stuck in the metropolitian area due to the favorable laws increasingly encroaching on the legal citizen workers in that area.

The population is kept suppressed, deluded, and increasingly more and more dysfunctional. And in exchange, we get Care Bear Rainbow Hugs and propaganda based good will. It’s largely bullshit.

Most people, including Christians, understand the hurdles for gay couples, and it’s why we went along with the Civil Unions acts… which allows stuff, like long term, committed gay couples being able to visit one another in hospitals and being the obvious legal authority for questions involving their mate’s wishes when they are incapacitated or dead- however, right now, because of all the negative propaganda comming from it, marriage in and of itself is under significant threat- getting married isn’t a issue about love- you can love in a marriage, as well as outside of a marriage, and even have a loveless marriage. Marriage is a legal cohersion via the courts meant to keep breeding couples together for the sake of the child and the community. Most of our complex marriage laws in family court deal with this. It’s been deteriorating like a ‘mother fucker’ to borrow a phrase from the gay movement of the 60s… and now we have a huge population of welfare single mothers and estranged, broken, and beaten down fathers who are left essentially impoverished all on the basis of the PLEASURE PRINCIPLE being held as the unifying basis of marriage, and not the need of a Man and a Woman to stick it out.

Honestly… in a country where all are expected to be judged equally under a law, should a marriage court judge fight to get a man and a woman wedded together to stick it out, going to marriage counseling, for the sake of the children over a silly stupid disagreement, so their estate isn’t torn to shreds and the children aren’t impoverished later on when they are set to inherit their parents estates… and in the case of a Man-Man marriage just say ‘okay, since you don’t love one another, so be it, union split’.

That makes no damn sense, but it doesn’t make any sense to keep Larry and Bob in a marriage either if they don’t like one another. It’s a sterile relationship- no children, it’s union is built and destroyed on the fluctuation of emotions, and there isn’t any real solid bond- such as a child they both produced, to keep them together.

Therefor- gays don’t get married. They can have civil unions.

I would also like to point out we have this thing known as a Common Law Marriage, where a man living with a woman without being married becomes a legally obligated husband in the courts, especially if children are involved, so if he kicks her out, she has rights, as her estate and livelihood i tied up in his… many women were becoming homeless mothers in the past, unable to support themselves when their sugar daddy got bored with them. It’s not really enforced if there are no children… though it can be in situations. It makes little sense to do this to two men or two women however… they both are expected to be of equal earning capacity, as one isn’t at home watching the kids.

Obviously, exceptions can be made in the future. Say… two guys have a test tube baby together, grown in a pod… then it’s a situation, though not recommended to occur, would likely necessitate marriage for them… even when they decide one day out of the blue ‘I don’t love you’.

It’s not the case we don’t recognize you can love one another with equal passion as a heterosexual partner- we’ve always have known that, even in the dark ages. Marriage isn’t a pact of coming together out of love, it’s a pact that you’re going to stick together even when you fall out of it. It makes little sense to keep a gay couple together when they fall out of love, but it still makes sense in many cases when a heterosexual couple with children do. The offspring is the fabric of our civilization, and we don’t want the children growing up to be feral children dancing in the streets of the hood with no parental oversight because mommy or naddy isn’t there to watch the kid. Such kids grow up oftentimes to be criminals, and they don’t comprehend why they got the short stick in life. It’s because mommy and daddy didn’t grasp marriage, and didn’t try to stick it though for the sake of the children. This is a situation possible because the society liberalized the marriage laws.

If gays are married, they have to be treated as equals in marriage. It means heterosexuals can’t get married… we’ll have to craft a new category of union causing them to be enforced under law to keep together despite the silliness of their claims.

Does this mean I am opposed to divorce? No… but falling out of love isn’t a excuse for it if you have children. Areas of grey abound here, and exceptions can be made… that’s for the courts to do. The broad principles of marriage is for the sake of the continuation of society via children. Gays don’t make children, they make Pugs and other little dogs, and dress them up like children, and I don’t give much of a hoot for the continuation of the generational longevity of pugs, or miniature french bulldogs, and the other surrogate childrens of the gay community in relationship to human children.

You can be gay, you can love- in my state, you can work. It’s okay. However, don’t expect much acceptance of a purely gay culture as equal- it’s not- we’re biased to the culture of the heterosexuals, because they make the next generation. They are the baby makers, and it’s only natural we give them the advantages to properly raise sane, nurished children who are not hoodlums. It’s very true, Heterosexual families come first over Gay Culture… it should be common sense as that is what is going to ensure future gay children can be born- if we put our emphasis on a culture of sterility, it would be like the movie ‘Children of Men’ where no one is reproducing anymore, and there are no more children. They gays need us to make the next generation, back us a little here, and quit trying to tear society down. It’s not helping anyone, it’s making things worst.

Hand pick your flowers at the florist. Walk your dogs. Enjoy the company of your homosexual friends… but know the emphasis of society can never be centered around homosexuality- it’s going to be centered around the struggle of making the next generation- which is a heterosexual affair- but even then, yes, you can be a subsidiary effector in a positive sense to the overall system. This means, understanding the psychology of married couples, and keeping them together long enough for their children to reach maturity without becoming wacked out. I assure you, some of them will come join your camp once they are grown up. If you make a effort to look out for the young ones, we’ll look out for you. This means, stop the assault of marriage. Encourage your straight friends to work harder in their marriage. Don’t get that cute guy you know who has a new wife and a child to stray from his wife for a affair with you- encourage him to support his wife, and that child. There are plenty of guys willing to take it in the ass, it doesn’t have to be him (I’ve seen that happen, it’s sickening, poor wife stayed at home raising the kid).

The Gay Marriage movement is deeply destructive to marriage. You already have the equivalent. You can make efforts to stopping the cycle of violence. The philosophy of the human race shouldn’t be focused on making the gays feel mushy and self-actualized socially via recognition, anymore than it should for straights when they get married. The philosophy should be focused on making sane, healthy, and potentially productive babies themselves… even when the parents fall out of love and otherwise turn to shit.

So much of marriage court deal with this. There is a strong, underlining element of cohesion inherent in marriage. It’s why it’s a community thing. It’s only on the surface a aspect of declaration- the reason for the declaration- historical and real, was to allow everyone to note it, and enforce it. Society evolved around it, and survived via it. A childless couple isn’t that big of a issue to society, be it gay or straight. If you fall out of love in a childless marriage, then so be it… go your separate ways, it wasn’t really a marriage in the first place- not the kind society needs to continue itself.

The cycle of destruction has to end. The gay movement has done much to destroy the stability of the family. Are they alone at fault? No… but they have been a dominant focal point in the destruction for quite some time. It’s time to stop.

(as a side note, the general greater acceptance of lesbians over gay men largely stems from gay women being able to reproduce via sperm donors, hence still players in reproductions, and therefor nearly equal stakeholders. The issue arises, if the non-biological parent backs out, do we have a real basis for keeping her in a marriage if she never actually involved herself genetically in producing the child, lesbians for this reason have a little bit more wiggle room than gay men, as they can still make new people who will grow to partake in society. Two gays guys are are a significant disadvantage, one most won’t realistically overcome in the reproduction department no matter how much Bob tries to impregnate Larry.)