Before seeing if you should change marriage laws, you should look at what is the reason for the government institution of marriage. Marriage has been around a long time, but there wasn't always government regulation and benefits for being married. It was a ceremony for the economic benefit of two people (and maybe their respective families). It was presided over by some religious officer. Much of what marriage currently entails is new (relatively speaking).
So what reason would government have for intervening in marriage at all? Unlike what some people would like to think, marriage has nothing to do with the happiness of the participants. That can be a side effect, but the government really has no care about that. Government social programs (and laws to enforce social desires) are for keeping society as a whole stable. The government has decided that the best way to promote stable society is to try to provide stable homes for citizens to grow up in. The easiest way for this to be done is by giving certain incentives for married couples, it being assumed that a child is best raised by it's parents in a stable home. This is also a primary reason for the ban on polygamy-it is assumed that having multiple people in a home will not provide the same healthy environment as a couple. The government cares not how much two men love each other. It cares if that couple can produce children, which it's a biological impossibility for a gay couple to do. There is a fundamental difference between homo and hetero couples-one can produce offspring. And thats all the government cares about. Think I'm talking out my ass?
Rulings against gay marriage in Florida and Louisiana fuel debate
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Moody [presiding judge]sided with Attorney General John Ashcroft, who argued in court filings that the government has a legitimate interest in allowing states to ban same-sex marriages, namely to encourage "stable relationships" for the rearing of children by both biological parents.
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And as an aside, if you argue for gay marriage and against polygamy, you ARE a hypocrite. Both have to do with choices by concenting adults.
And as another aside, race and sexual orientation aren't the same thing. Race and sexual orientation aren't the same thing. Race and sexual orientation aren't the same thing. Race and sexual orientation aren't the same thing. They aren't the same from a legal basis, nor a biological one. Here's once more for good measure-race and sexual orientation aren't the same thing. I know minority rights is SO 1960's, but just because "gay rights" is the new pet cause doesn't mean it's the same as those that came before it.