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Originally Posted by Infinite_Loser
I haven't based anything off of religion. The only time I ever mentioned religion was in response to a users post which happened to mention religion. Anyway, as I stated in my post prior, being married is a privilege and, as such, the act of being married can be denied to any persons. How does the denial of the privilege of marriage negatively affect a homosexual's life?
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Marriage is a basic civil right in the United States.
Eight months ago I drove my car into a ditch, ending up with a severe concussion, cerebral edema, and a mangled left arm. I was unconcious for three days. My wife Grace was at the hospital within 12 hours. She is a nurse with a master's degree in emergency medicine, and has worked both as a paramedic and in the ER. She had with her my living will naming her as the person I wanted making my medical decisions, and there was a number of them to be made, for example, whether to try to save my arm or to amputate. Even though she had a living will in hand, she wasn't permitted to make those decisions. She was not permitted to visit me in ICU during a crucial period of time when it was unsure whether I would survive. They attempted to contact my parents, the last people I'd want making decisions for me, which is in my living will, to do that. My wife was forced to get a lawyer and a court order to get those privileges.
In the interim, my sister was determined by the hospital to be my next of kin. Until the court order arrived, the doctors involved would explain the choices to my sister, Grace would tell them what she wanted done (in every case making the same choice I would have for myself, I might add) and Sissy would tell them "Do what she said." Once the court order arrived, she was treated like my wife rather than an unrelated friend.
What required a living will and a court order would have been automatic had we been legally married.
That's just one. There are dozens, probably hundreds, and all come automatically with marriage, without having to make other arrangements.
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The notion that citizens are equal under the law-- While noble-- Is a load of horse dung. There are many social inequalities present in our every day society, which are not questioned and accepted as common practice (For example, in the United States, we deny criminals the right to vote, we deny minors the right to enter into contracts, you can't legally drink if you're under the age of 21 etc.). If you're going to argue on the basis that denying homosexuals the privilege of marriage is violating the notion that citizens are equal under the law, then you'd better start to challenege all inequalities.
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Red herrings. Those are separate issues that deserve their own separate discussions. We all have issues that concern us more than others. Specific advocacy regarding those issues does not require that one take a specific position on other unrelated or only tangentially related issues.
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Originally Posted by Kurant
I have no problem with gay marriages.. It's unnatural and IMO disgusting, but it's someone elses life and sexual preference, not mine. With that said, this is America, the so called land of the free, so more power to them.
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All marriage is unnatural.
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What I DO have a problem with, is gay marriages mainly gay men having the ability to adopt children. That is not a postive thing for any child in any form. Could you imagine the hell this kid would go through in a public school system when people found out? Talk about an extreme case of a social misfit. Potentially creating another social disaster and a kid that mentally is just not together.
Besides removing a child from some sort of foster care or adoption center, I just cannot thing of one positive thing about gay marriages adopting children.
Again, just my opinion. But, I'm very strong about it.
(P.S. Sorry for the edit, but formatting on my laptop is hell for some reason. Drives me crazy.)
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Speaking as a homosexual in the process of starting a family, I understand the specific concern you express here, and it is a reasonable one to have. When we have a child or children, it will be an issue that we'll discuss with them and how they can deal with the potential teasing or bullying at school. It, however, has not proven to be the case that children of homosexuals are harmed in any way, or turn out any differently from the children of heterosexuals.
Gilda