It holds no value for me either. They don't have the right to dictate the rights of others based on their personal religious beliefs. that's more offensive anyway.

I am against gay marriage. But I'm not against civil union for gay couples.

I believe gay people should be able to be legally bonded, but I believe the idea/term of marriage should be kept a heterosexual ideal, out of respect for what it has always been.

I'm also against political correctness.

****ing hippies.

What? The religious don't have to accept the gay marriages just because the government does. Allowing gay marriage won't send anyone to Hell who wasn't already going in the eyes of the more religious.

As for 'nice and comforting,' there's a bit more to having equal rights than that. I wouldn't say it's inaccurate (I'm tired, but I believe you are using my words), but it's also not the whole story.

There is no harm to the religious to allow gay marriage. There is harm to the gays to not allow gay marriage. This is a very simple choice, and I honestly don't get the arguments otherwise.

Did you look at the link I provided? I didn't search for it for no reason.

so I take it you are against interracial marriage too? Out of respect?

What marriage has 'always been' and what marriage is now are not the same thing. Because marriage is more of a living, changing entity. So, on what grounds is your reasoning valid?

Those that would be offended are discriminating against me. I have no issues with offending such people. Remember back in the day when interracial couples weren't allowed to marry? You know how many people were offended by the thought of legalizing interracial marriages? Yeah, I'm glad you weren't there to ask them to forgo equal rights in the name of peace.

What you showed was that a significant number of marriages aren't tied to religion. So, as I said, there is no issue with getting married and not viewing it as having anything to do with religion. If so many straight people do it, why would gay people have so much trouble with it?

Yes. But I fail to understand why everything HAS to change. Why is that? Some things should be kept traditional?

And you want to know why I have a valid reasoning for my beliefs?

Because I can.

I'm sick and tired of people asking for my opinion and then berating me for them. If you can't handle my opinion, don't ****ing ask for it.

I'll defend my opinion until I die.

**** change.

And **** political correctness.

1) So, does God only oppose homosexual marriages, or all homosexual acts? And if He opposes all homosexuality, is letting gays get married really going to offend Him that much more than he's already offended by all the gay sex that's been going on?

2) You've stated the cost/benefit analysis from your perspective, so allow me to state mine... Because some people believe that a power that I don't even believe in doesn't want me to get married, I'm going to be deprived of hundreds of thousands, potentially millions of dollars worth of benefits that my friends, co-workers and fellow citizens all have access to. I might be unable to visit my partner in a hospital when she's sick. Depending on where we live, I might not be able to be a legally recognized guardian of our future children. If she were from another country, I wouldn't be able to sponsor her for citizenship. And most fundamentally, my government and every single person who has ever voted against same sex marriage has sent me a clear message that my relationship is less than a straight one. And I'm just supposed to accept all of that and make a "small sacrifice" because some people, who frequently choose to ignore specific biblical passages, have decided to be sticklers on their interpretation of a few specific sections?

Nope.

Man and Woman are designed to procreate and continue to foster the future generations.

That was the original concept of marriage.

It's all twisted these days.

You have any problem with infertile/sterile couples marrying? Some get married for love. Some get married to join together 2 families for financial reasons. I'm not sure why your idea of what marriage is for is supposed to be more valid than these ideas.

As I've shown already, marriage predates reliable records, so how you know the original concept of marriage is a miracle at best, and wishful thinking at worst.

That's what they said before allowing interracial marriages. We're asking for change for the sake of equality, something we should all value highly. Why hold to this tradition? What is hurt by the change?

Wow, if it's that bad for you to defend your opinion, then maybe you should reconsider the position you hold.

And I have a reason to challenge you here as your opinion is directly affecting my life.

You're all the same.

Seriously, you can't just ****ing deal with the simple fact that someone has a differing opinion.

I am against gay marriage.

I listen to hardcore, I have tattoos, and I don't do drugs.

Wanna cut into any of my other beliefs?

i would agree with you that there isn't, but In their eyes there certainly is. It's an offense to God.

I suppose it's pretty pointless to argue from their perspective though since they're against civil unions anyway. Some probably still would support sodomy laws. I can only defend a compromise neither side will be willing to make so much .

I know doctrines like that exist I just don't see church leaders serious enough about it to not recognize modern divorces in practice.

It's not about offending God it's about offending devout Christians who believe in him.

You can do all those things in a civil union.

How ironic.

I'll admit that I have a hard time understanding people who oppose gay marriage, and I suppose I ask for justification simply because it seems like such a slam dunk issue to me. And while you are of course entitled to your opinion, I guess I feel some right to question your stance because your stance on this issue impacts my life in ways that your feelings on tattoos or drug use simply do not.

It's kinda like saying if you're listening to hardcore on your ipod, I wouldn't care, but if you were blasting it on a boombox outside my window at 3am, I'd probably ask you to turn it down.

Ultimately, it sounds like you'd just like this whole issue to be resolved so that you could stop having to argue about it... Believe me, I'd love that too.

But that's my point... Those Christians don't oppose same sex marriage because they believe God opposes gay marriages, they oppose same sex marriage as part of what they believe to be a larger prescription of homosexuality. So, I don't think that most Christians who oppose civil marriages for religious reasons would suddenly be ok with civil unions, because they oppose anything that they believe will legitimize homosexuality.

As I said earlier itt, if you could definitively tell me that civil unions could achieve legal equality x years earlier than calling it marriage, there are some values of x for which I'd be willing to compromise... But I don't actually think that changing the name would significantly alter the timeframe for achieving legal recognition.