Gay Marriage

[Nick]

Hi all,

At school we have to do Religious Education (which, to appeal to more people, is really just Ethics, but we know the truth... :P)

For this we have to write about an ethical issue and I have chosen gay marriage (partly because my uncle is gay and partly because I am interested in seeing what the teacher (who is a chaplain) will say about it.)

Anyway, I'm wondering how it is around the world. I think that here in Australia, gay couples are allowed, but they aren't allowed to get married, per se.

Even if you just post your thoughts about it, it would be really helpful to me.

So any input on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

(I am actually taking this topic seriously and I couldn't give a flying fk about what people will think or say about me because of this)

[photosaurusrex]

In the UK gay couple are allowed a civil partenership which effectively is exactly the same as a marriage just not in a Church, they get the same rights as married couples.

It's title is the Civil Partnership Act 2004.

__

I did this topic for my spanish speaking exam, its a very good one to do

*off topic* I tried to click your sig

[xballetxbeautyx]

In the US it's different for different states. For example, California and Massachusetts I believe will allow it, but I live in Kansas where it's not allowed. The Constitution says marriage laws are up to each individual state, but some people want to ban it as a country... idiots.

i dont think anyone has the right to tell two people who r in love that they cant get married just because they r of the same gender. all these people try to fight it but they need to realize that one day eventually gay marriage will be allowed pretty much everywhere. the people who disagree with it can go somewhere.

I live in Connecticut, USA we have domestic partnerships not marriage...many debates still go on whether its in name only or does it limit rights of same sex partnerships...I support full marriage rights so I would say it doesn't go far enough.

[kramer362]

My view is if it actually remained a religious institution that was private from government they could discriminate all they want...

but since it's kind of a legal thing they have no right to discriminate. Any two adults of opposite sex can get married legally, even people the church would view as sinful for ANYTHING other than homosexuality. If say a catholic married a buddist, for example, of the opposite sex, I don't think the state would discriminate, even though the FIRST commandment is about not having other gods before the Christian God. Not saying the 10 Commandments is actually a moral code I would ever live by, but homosexuality isn't even on there, despite the Westboro Baptist Church trying to shoehorn it under adultery.

My view is that if marriage was strictly a religious institution then they could set whatever rules they want. But it's not private; they have no right to discriminate - marriage was adopted as the legal contract between two people that gives them benefits, etc.

Civil partnerships are not the same. Even if they actually granted the same rights as marriage, 'separate but equal' just creates another division between heterosexual and lgbt people.

I'm really sick of my tax dollars paying for programs that discriminate against me. The military and boy scouts are known to discriminate against atheists as well but are government funded

NOTE: I don't know much about the history of marriage so perhaps I'm talking out my ass

[Nick]

Thanks for your points of view everyone.

It isn't due in until next week so I'll re-read these comments and come up with the content required.

Thanks again

[Trumpetplyer23]

A lot of people blather on and on about how 'gay marriage would destroy the sanicity of marriage'. (I live in the US, by the way). I don't see how, to me, marriage was always about uniting two people who love each other officially, and not caring about gender, age, race, whatever.

Chew on this for a bit, think of all of the US celebrities that get married. Well, Britney Spears married a guy and they got the marriage enulled 55 hours after they officially 'tied the note'. Also, Dennis Rodman and Carmen Elektra got married and then they got their marriage enulled after about a week. Why did they get married? Because they were drunk and couldn't think straight (Wow, that was puntacular). In my opinion, people who do things like that are the ones who destroy the sancitity of marriage. I'm not saying divorce and/or enullment should be banned, but I think what those celebs did seriously destroyed what marriage means, at least to me it did.

Next, people also yak about how homosexuality is against the Bible. Well, I have this to say: AMERICA IS NOT A CHRISTIAN COUNTRY. WE ARE A DEMOCRACY, NOT A THEOCRACY. I know it's quite large, but it's true. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the First Amendment. Also, there's supposed to be a 'Separation of Church and State' so this kind of bullshit didn't happen.

Also, people complain about how homosexuality (and in turn, gay marriage) is not 'natural'. Think of it this way, if we regected everything that wasn't natural, we wouldn't have cars, computers, airplanes, skyscrapers, polyester, eyeglasses, contacts, etc. The list goes on and on. If we regect one thing because it's not 'natural', then we would have to regect everything that isn't 'natural' in order to avoid being stupid hypocrites.

I mean, in America, some states won't let a gay couple adopt a baby from an orphanage. Think about this, one our orphanages are full of kids that people didn't want or their parents died. Letting a gay couple adopt would give that kid a good home (if they were good parents). That stupid crap about how 'a child needs a mother and a father to grow up healthy emotionally, physically, and socially', what about single parents, because of divorce and death, should those single moms and dads be forced to remarry because having only one gender in the house wouldn't be right? Hell no. We haven't outlawed single parenthood and we shouldn't outlaw adoption to gay couples. Having gay parent(s) does not make you gay. I mean, look at all of us, most of us came from heterosexual (at least at one point) homes.

Marriage for is another thing I'm going to talk about. Pro-creationers (is that a word?!) want to ban gay marriage because it doesn't make babies. What about old people that get married? They can't make babies, are you going to tell them that they can't get married because the women's gone through menopause and the guy has ED? Also, what about heterosexual couples that are sterile? They can't make babies, are you going to tell them they can't get married?

I think that should help you with the America half. Good luck on your paper!

Sorry, I got a little carried away, but, I hope it helps you.