Personally, I think we have too many humans as it is, and if half the world wants to “go gay”, let’ em. It’s not like we’ll run out of people anytime soon.
The childbearing argument strikes me as one of the dumber defenses of so-called “traditional marriage.”
Okay, I’ve never seen that quote from her, but that’s hilarious - I adore her:).
And I can’t quite figure it out either, summerbreeze, but I’m looking at it from the other side. Why is it that my SO and I are allowed to get married legally when technically, we’ve only been together for a year, but one of my best friends, who has been with her girlfriend for over four years, isn’t allowed to marry legally? We are both madly in love with our respective SOs and we both know that we want to spend the rest of our lives with them. The only difference is that my SO is a man and hers is a woman.
They’ve decided to have a commitment ceremony this fall - the first one will be private for just the two of them, and plan on having a second one with a party next year. She’s going to have a part in my wedding, probably as a reader, and I’m just honored that she wants me to be at her ceremony - I know how in love they are and I only wish it could be legal.
Ava
I think it’s crap that homosexual persons of either gender can’t “legally” be with the person they love. As kellibelli said
The stupid governments need to recognize marriage as a LEGAL CONTRACT and not some divine god given right.
PREACH IT SISTAH!! This is what I’ve been saying for YEARS.
Can someone tell me why the religious right get so damned bent out of shape about the whole thing? As Jon Stewart said, gay marriage isn’t going to be… required, is it?
My father is the king of stupid reasons why gays and lesbians shouldn’t be allowed to marry.
I’ve had many a disagreement with him about this. I’m not gay, I just don’t see how it effects me if they two men or two women get married and get a tax break. I’ve told him that if God doesn’t like it, then He won’t recognize it.
His first reason was that if they were married, then more gays would get on health insurance. Because they are all so promiscuous(sp?), they will drive the cost of health care through the roof, directly affecting him.
Now, he tells me that he has a strong emotional attachment to the word marriage. I won’t get into the absurity of this argument, other than to mention that in June of next year he will marry his third wife.
I guess it’s just not to be understood.
They already do, which is why no religious ceremony is required to get married in any state in the Union, and legal divorce is granted by a court rather than a church.
And summerbreeze - I am sure you would object if the break up of Melissa Etheridge and her partner, or Ann Heche and Ellen DeGeneres, were used to argue that gay marriage is a bad thing.
They failed to reach the ideal of life-long fidelity, just as the groom in your OP has done.
Regards,
Shodan
What great posts! Really expected some “who are you to judge? Maybe #4 marriage was made in heaven” responses.
My partner and I attended a union ceremony a few years ago – two women who’d been together for a couple of years; big, expensive thing, reception, honeymoon in Paris. They lasted less than a year. Every time we saw them they were arguing. When they broke up, they were arguing about paying for the ceremony and honeymoon.
So – I’m not stupid enough to think every gay union will be a model of perfection. But it seems to me gays should have the same right to try for success as straights.
Little hijack here – when I refer to heteros as “straight,” is that a slur on gays, who must be “bent”?
No more than it’s a slur to call homosexuals “gay”, implying that heteros must be “sad” 
Did you have a point with your drivel about the gay couples you mention, Shodan?
Summerbreeze, “Who are you to judge? Maybe number four is made in heaven!”
No, I don’t actually believe this, but I figured the post should live up to your expectations! 
My take on the “so what’s so damn important about child bearing in marriage” question: From vague memories of my “Kinship and Marriage” seminar as an anthropology grad student, marriage was, at least initially, either an economic institution, a political institution, or a bit of both, depending on who you believe. Women were the limiting resource for any population: you only need one man, theoretically, for the band/tribe to survive if you had enough women. Add the sociobiological aspects of the importance of your genetic lineage surviving, and you have a pretty explosive combination resulting in hereditary leadership and wealth by marriage. Even though there are countless variations of this scenario, this is pretty much of a universal constant across cultures. It’s about as culturally embedded as any can be.
That is a possible anthropological, or “etic” explanation. The conscious, or “emic” explanation, is simple: Guys kissing guys is gross. Yechh. That’s why God hates it. (sarcasm)
I’m sure if you and your partner invited your families and friends to a commitment ceremony there would be the same happily ever after talk. It is ashame it can’t be done legally.
Question: If you were offered a legal option, say a “legal union,” and given all the same rights / responsibilities as a hetero marriage, but just not call it “marriage,” or “holy matrimony,” would that be an acceptable first step or would you be offended by such a suggestion?
/hijack/ That oldest son is just about the right age to try to catch some glimpses of “mom” coming out the shower or changing etc…" /end hijack/
I guess his point is, that it would be a bad thing if someone were to use the break-up of a single gay couple (let’s assume a legally married couple here) as an argument against gay marriage on the whole.
Which would have been relevant had the OP suggested that a single heterosexual break-up is an argument against straight marriages on the whole. Which, of course, she didn’t.
Homebrew beat me to it. What are you going on about, Shodan?
I would object, too, because the statement does nothing, absolutely nothing to support the argument that gay marriage is a bad thing.
summerbreeze wasn’t arguing that heterosexual marriage is a bad thing so your ‘examples’ were pointless and asinine. I suspect you’re blatantly aware of this, though.
I’m a Republican. Never have I wanted to leave my party so badly as I do right now. This need to codify the notion that marriage is a union between a man and a woman is so contrary to the party’s traditional stance of staying the hell out of people’s business. It pisses me off to no end every time I think about it.
The first, with the emphasis on “first step.” It’s what we’ve got in Quebec, actually, and that’s fine, but it doesn’t mean we’re going to pack up and go home.
It’s not entirely clear to me, but it sounds like you’re putting down this traditional marriage, when it’s clear that that’s the last thing in the world you want anyone to do to you.
Actually, she was arguing that the three divorces of a single heterosexual groom was an argument in favor of gay marriage, which is equally illogical.
Regards,
Shodan
PS - Sorry if I am going too fast for you, Homebrew.
Yes, we’d accept (be thrilled by, actually) a civil union that granted us the same rights as a hetero couple. My partner’s life insurance company, at the time we came together, doesn’t permit anyone except a blood relative or a spouse to be the beneficiary. Neither of us can be on the other’s health insurance. Our local hospital admits only family members as visitors in the ICU. And so on…
Yeah, hilltopper, we had the same thought, sort of.
After reading the OP several times just to make sure I’m not crazy, I think I know what Shodan’s problem is.
Shodan, go to Tools / Internet Options / Content and disable Show Arguments that Aren’t Actually There
Nowhere in the OP does summerbreeze contend “three divorces of a single heterosexual groom” is “an argument in favor of gay marriage”.
I’ll let her answer if that’s what she meant, but I read it as: “here we have a bunch of people celebrating a marriage of someone who, if history is any indication, can’t sustain a commited relationship at all, yet the thought of me and my long-time same-sex partner marrying would piss the same crowd off to no end, even though we have much better odds of ‘making it’ than the groom here”.
Not an argument in favour or against gay marriage, rather than a description of the sometimes hypocritical attitudes towards the concept “marriage”.