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Originally Posted by Gilda
You claim was that it has always been between male and female. It hasn't. It doesn't matter that the changes I list are recent, they disprove that claim.
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Now you're playing semantics. You know very well what was meant by the statement "Marriage has always been considered to be between a man and a woman", even more so because-- Along with that statement-- I happened to ask you to name me some ancient cultures in which homosexuality was a common part of (You turned around and tried to give me current examples). My claim is still correct: For as long as anyone can remember, marriage has always been deemed between a man and a woman. It's only until very recently which people have tried to challenge that claim.
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Oh, and many Native American tribes followed a practice labled by anthropologists as berdache. Most nations prefer the term two spirit. It allowed, and even celebrated the practice of a male dressing and acting the role of a female even marrying another male. The argument can be made, I suppose, that this represents an early form of transsexualism, but given what I've read on the subject I think it covers both male homosexuality and transsexuality depending on the degree to which the two-spirited person identified as masculine or feminine.
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I'm fully aware of the term and what it involves. Explain to me, however, how this exquates to any type of homosexuality and/or transexuality? More than anything else, "berdache" was a form of social structure. Both males and females would take on specific roles in their community. There has been no evidence that any of this had anything to do with one's sexuality.
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In the United states marriage is a right.
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Try that argument and see how far it gets you. Marriage isn't owed to anyone-- Not me, not you and not anyone else who reads this sentence.
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In Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, biologist Bruce Bagemihl documents hundreds of animal species that exhibit various kinds of homosexual behaviors.
Non human animals engage in pretty much every sexual behavior that humans do.
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Did I not address that earlier in a previous post of mine? There have been displays of homosexual tendencies in some animal species, but it stops far short of sexual intercourse.
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We don't know the exact reasons for homosexuality occurring in nature outside of human beings, though it has been linked to overcrowding in some species. We have a very good grasp of the causes of male homosexuality in humans, while there seem to be multiple causes, mostly environmental, for females. They're both natural, though.
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This isn't completely true, either. As far as procreation purposes, we know that homosexuality occurs in animals with whom both have male and female sexual organs. In organisms which lack both male and female organs, we have observed homosexual tendencies as a way of social interaction or to release stress. For example, bonobo males will commonly engage in penis jousting with one another (Think "Chicken fight", only with penises) as a way of social interaction.
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Originally Posted by Charlatan
Please supply us with a non-bigoted argument. You speak about them but have yet to supply one.
Thanks.
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I would, but you instantly dismiss all opposing arguments as bigoted.
Plain and simply put, gay marriages aren't legalized because people don't want them to be legalized. For thousands of years, marriage has been defined as being between a man and a woman and, not surprisingly enough, people want to keep it that way. For whatever the reason-- Social, political, religious or other-- The common concensus is that homosexuality is seen as unnatural.
Marriage has always been considered sacred. When something which is seen as unnatural starts to encroach on something which is seen as sacred and holy, then of course you're going to get stark opposition.