Gay marriage

Overview

Gay marriage (where "gay" refers to same-sex relationships of any gender; also called "same-sex marriage") is an issue because some people want to do it and some others find it distasteful and/or believe it to be immoral.

Reference

• Campaigns Wikia

Related Articles

• Gay marriage is a reproductive issue, albeit in a backhanded sort of way
• Arguments against gay marriage include the completely irrelevant but apparently persuasive claim that being gay is a choice

News

• 2006-05-18 Gay marriage ban advances to Senate floor by Bob Geiger at 9:56 AM
• 2006-04-26 A Real Live Brokeback Cowboy by Annie Anderson, In These Times: real-life example of how existing laws are harmful to gay people
• 2006-02-13 Civil partnerships likely to boost health of gay and lesbian people
• 2006-01-21 Maryland Judge throws out law banning gay marriages
• 2005-07-21 Canada becomes 4^th nation to allow same-sex marriage
  • 2005-06-28 Same-Sex Marriage Legislation Passed in Canada
• 2005-07-05 Church of Christ endorses same-sex marriage
• 2005-07-01 Spain legalizes same-sex marriage

Opinion

• A cogent anti-gay-marriage opinion by Orson Scott Card
  • related counter-comments by webcomic artist Aeire (domain seems to have been sold; posting not found in archive.org)
  • 2005-04-02 forum posting attempting to explain and reconcile Card's position with those of Aeire and others
• The Family: A Proclamation to the World: the official opinion of the LDS

Points

Against

• "gay marriage" is a contradiction in terms
  • This is a definitional argument, and it often confuses the issue. My understanding is that what gay people want, when they say they want the right to "marry", is the right to the legal recognitions and protections that come with marriage. There is no inherent contradiction to gay people being given those rights and protections, so the speaker who sees a contradiction must be defining "marriage" in some other way. A possible compromise position would be to separate the two – tie the legal rights to a word other than "marriage", and apply that universally. --Woozle 08:28, 16 Feb 2006 (CST)
    • Some states (Vermont, California, and Connecticut) have tried this with "Civil Unions" and many proponents of gay marriage say that it is not enough, they want to redefine marriage. Personally, I believe that the governments should remove the term "marriage" from all government regulations and stipulate those rights for all persons as a "Civil Union," leaving marriages to the religious institutions. Midian 16:33, 28 July 2006 (EDT)

In Favor

• Erin Lindsay writes (Venus Envy news for 2006-07-27) (with some reformatting and emphasis):
  • This morning, the Washington States Supreme Court handed down their decision that homosexuals didn't deserve the right to marry. Their basic reasoning, like most every opponent's, is that being gay is a choice, so it's not something you need special consideration for.
  • I'm not going to break off into a tirade about whether or not gay is in-born or learned, and whether its a choice or something you're just given without your consultation, but if it were up to these same sorts of people, being black would probably be considered a lifestyle choice, too.
  • The line that really stuck it to me was in mentioning that gays weren't being discriminated against, because they're free to marry people of the opposite sex any time they want. Dear lord, if ANYTHING would cause damage to straight marriage, it would be forcing gays to do it.
  • The primary justification for the judicial discrimination was that gay couples couldn't procreate (well... gay male couples, anyway; as near as I can tell, there's no such thing as lesbians), so in years to come, expect to see a lot of court decisions from Washington state outlawing marriage between the elderly, sterile couples, and heterosexuals who don't want children.
  • Luckily, thanks to extremely close-minded birth-certificate modification laws that prevent a transsexual from being re-assigned as her new gender, I can still legally marry the woman I love. I guess two wrongs can make a right.

Inquiries

• What arguments can be leveled against gay marriage that cannot be leveled against interracial marriage? (see wikipedia:Loving v. Virginia; apparently, at the time of this decision, more people were against interracial marriage than are now against gay marriage – not that this proves anything, but it shows how opinion can change given a few decades)

Links

• Little-Known Bible Verses: The Sin of Sodom was not homosexuality, but being "arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." (Ezekiel 16:49, NIV translation)