Gay marriage

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In the original version of Issuepedia, there was a fairly extensive section about this issue. I plan to reconstruct it when I have time. For now, I needed a place to put some links.

News

• 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 opinion by Orson Scott Card, and related comments by Aeire

Arguments and Responses

• "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)

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)