wanner47 - that article uses the same old flawed ideas. Here’s a few of them:
“state recognition of marriage is not a universal right”
Maybe not marriage in and of itself, but marriage encompasses many rights, which should be fundamental to every couple.
“Why? Because a marriage between two unrelated heterosexuals is likely to result in a family with children, and propagation of society is a compelling state interest.”
Yet elderly couples and infertile couples are not restricted from getting married, so this can’t be the
only reason…
"The marriage laws, therefore, ensure, albeit imperfectly, that the vast majority of couples who do get the benefits of marriage are those who bear children. "
So we’re saying that it’s OK to have one rule for one and one rule for another simply because in one case it’s rare or difficult to determine, but in the other case we can determine it. (Also I wonder what the statistics would be in the case of how many same sex couples would get married compared to how many elderly couples, and wather it could therefore be considered “rare”?)
Rarity of elderly marriage does not justify exclusion of homosexul marriage on the basis of producing children. Thats discrimination at its finest.
"The burden of proof, therefore, is on the advocates of gay marriage to show what state interest these marriages serve. Thus far, this burden has not been met. "
Adoption
"Gays are not necessarily bad parents, nor will they necessarily make their children gay, but they cannot provide a set of parents that includes both a male and a female. "
Lack of understanding of the differences between gender and sex here… even so, we have single parent families, these arent’ illegal. Isn’t a loving homosexual family better for a child than no family at all?
“Advocates of gay marriage claim gay couples need marriage in order to have hospital visitation and inheritance rights, but they can easily obtain these rights by writing a living will and having each partner designate the other as trustee and heir. There is nothing stopping gay couples from signing a joint lease or owning a house jointly, as many single straight people do with roommates. The only benefits of marriage from which homosexual couples are restricted are those that are costly to the state and society.”
Why should gay couples have to go through this aggrovation to get the rights they should already be entitled to? So it’s costly to the state and society. Gays pay taxes too, do they not?
“If the state must recognize a marriage of two men simply because they love one another, upon what basis can it deny marital recognition to a group of two men and three women, for example, or a sterile brother and sister who claim to love each other?”
Polygamy is a whole new argument. As is incest. For example:
- How do an incestuous couples seperate natural family love from romantic love? If they can do so, whats the problem?
- What rights would marriage provide an incestuous couple that they don’t already have, as family members?
“Homosexual activists protest that they only want all couples treated equally. But why is sexual love between two people more worthy of state sanction than love between three, or five? When the purpose of marriage is procreation, the answer is obvious. If sexual love becomes the primary purpose, the restriction of marriage to couples loses its logical basis, leading to marital chaos.”
We have established already that the purpose of marriage is not procreation. Why should procreation be a prerequisite to rights that couples should have, regardless of children?
Incedentally, have you seen the article in my sig? It goes into far deeper detail into most of these points…