"I dont support gay marriage cause of my religion"

I think it's okay to not get gay-married because of your religion. However, I don't really agree that it's right to prevent other people from doing so because it doesn't harm your own rights.
For example, religions also say not to kill people or steal. Killing and stealing are illegal because they violate other people's right's to life and property. However, you still have the right to not get married to someone of the same gender even if it's legal, and no one can marry you without your consent, so it shouldn't affect you. The only argument against legalizing gay marriage for religious reasons is that you believe we should have a state religion.

 

A few of my friends aren't in favor of gay adoption, and while I don't agree with that opinion, I will respect their reasons (as long as they have reasons).
You don't have to agree, but you can respect their opinion, its actually very mature to do so, specially if it is about something as personal as a person's religion.

 

I'm an antitheist with Christian friends, so I can see it under that light; they accept I dislike what they do as long as I show my tolerance and don't try to convert them.

However, even if someone is against gay marriage I don't want it being taken away just because it goes against their religion. Just like I have no right to take their religion away for going against my beliefs.

 

I think I agree with Fallingdown. I can be friends with someone who doesn't agree with gay marriage, but it's going to be hard knowing they're actively fighting against it and trying to take something away from me that I might some day want to do. It would be like a suffragette being friends with a man who was actively fighting against the women's suffrage movement. That'd be tough.

I would never say I hate someone like that or anything. And if they just expressed disagreement with it but weren't actively fighting against it, then that would be fine too. But more than that and there might be a little problem.

 

I would have a hard time being friends with someone who is against gay marriage. I plan on transitioning and possibly marrying a woman someday. I can't really be friends with someone who will try to talk me out of that, and just overal be against our whole marriage simply because we are both women.

 

If they tell me who I can and can't marry, I'll tell them where to shove their Bible and I don't care if that makes me a horrible human being. It's as simple as that really.

 

I don't have a problem with people personally believing anything. I do have a problem when their beliefs strip me and others of actual rights. I don't get really Christians wanting to prevent gay marriage, as Jesus never said anything about gay people or marriage, and going against love has always just seemed so not Christ-like to me.

But I get their churches teach that and I accept they see it as unnatural or going against god or whatever, and that's fine. It allows for more discourse and a wider variety of opinions, and quite frankly makes life more interesting. Having their viewpoints around just makes for a stronger case on our behalf.

 

Hey, as far as I'm concerned, a person can support bigotry and discrimination for whatever reason they feel comfortable doing so. Just don't ask me to approve of it.

 

You're probably right to remain friends with people you disagree with. But you'd also be fully in the right to mind that they don't support it and hold it against them. One can politely/privately hope for slavery to be reinstated, and that's fine; that doesn't mean it's not a revolting opinion or worse yet, that they should actually vote for it. Granted opposition to gay marriage isn't quite as archaic as the idea of institutionalized racism, but the principle is the same. If given the chance I'd want to challenge somebody's anti-gay stance to see why they are against basic human rights.

More generally though, anyone who says "because of my religion" probably doesn't fully understand why their religion is against it. I get the strong vibe of "it is because it is" reigns as the most popular answer-- people think of it as inherently icky and against the intentions of nature if not God. All of that works as justification for disliking homosexuality free and clear. I'm sure a million and one people feel that way and don't cause problems. What it doesn't justify is crapping on other people's own business by putting their base feelings into law.

 

I think it's ok to "agree to disagree." If you have a good chunk of religious friends, you're bound to see this. What you might see is that they are not against LGBT people, or just indifferent to or accepting of there being LBGT people, but are not in favor of same sex marriage because of following of what their religions say more strictly. I could see this as more vexing for someone who is on the verge of getting married or aspires to get married, but since it's an institution that doesn't interest me, I guess they don't anger me as much.

The way I look at this is, "Aren't they quite a bit better to hang out with than religious people who find LGBT folks despicable to the bone?" Those people are the most dangerous, since their hatred knows NO bounds. Some of these very people you're describing can be learned and were born and live in cosmopolitan urban areas. It's a gray area, and I think it's partly generational. I'd say most old people are adamantly against it, young people are almost unanimously for it, and middle aged people are very mixed on the issue.

 

I don't know of any friends of mine with that opinion, which is nice. My mother didn't approve last time it came up, but she doesn't believe in God. She just doesn't see why the law should be changed for gay people, whom she's not comfortable with. It'll be interesting to see if she changes her mind when I come out.

The religious angle is a position that annoys me. If they're Christian, Jesus actually spoke against divorce and remarriage, which suggests that that should be a higher priority to them. But you don't see people fasting to end divorce (as the FRC are encouraging people to do for 21 days before the SC judgement) or claiming a religious right not to bake cakes for marriages of divorcees.

Is that for religious reasons? I think the way to deal with those people is to show them empirical evidence. By many measures, gay parents are on average better than straight - principally because we are quite spectacularly unlikely to have accidental conceptions.

 

This is (among other reasons) why most religions annoy me.

No I wouldn't be friends with a homophobe.

 

I think people who use their religion as an excuse to be against gay marriage are not really thinking for themselves. I don't think it is a great reason just to be against gay marriage because your pastor or priest told you so. Religion can be a good reason not to do homosexual things yourself, though, but shouldn't be the sole reason you're against gay marriage, unless somehow you think god really would be displeased with the world if gays could marry. Then, you're crazy, but have an acceptable reason... Most religious people are not really religious enough to be able to formulate such an opinion on their own.

While I find "religion" to be the weakest argument against homosexuality, usually, I actually can understand a lot of homophobes concerns. A few really are phobic, and not just hateful toward gay people, but really phobic what will happen to society. Those are legitimate concerns to me.

 

It's not ok if they think their beliefs should dictate whether or not we should have the right to marry. You think being gay is a sin? Fine, whatever, but you have no right to deny me marriage.

 

Wow.... you guys have made a lot of good points. I especially agree with Quiet Raven, biAnnika, Austin and Boudicca.

I can be civil towards the person if they are, say, a coworker, but I could never be actual friends with them if they are trying to deny me equal rights.

 

In my opinion, they can have whatever opinion they want on gay marriage, so long as they don't try and project their opinion on other people.
If they start insisting that 'no, gays can't get married because I don't like it', it's a little stupid.
I mean, it's not like it's infectious.
It's the same with anything else really. If you don't support gay marriage, then don't get married to someone of the same sex as you. Crisis averted.

 

That's fine, we all have our opinion.

However, the USA is run by the Constitution, not the Bible(no matter how much religious zealots would like it to be) or any OTHER religious document, so have your opinion, but it cannot be used to control how many rights I have or get. That is what is happening over here right now in fact.

 

Everyone's entitled to their beliefs, but I can't resist the opportunity for a good debate
The problem I have with the religion argument is how easily people will accept the marriages of people of other religions (which is also viewed by God as 'sinful'), not even questioning whether it should be 'marriage'. Surely one set of people who go against the Bible is just as bad as another?
Personally I view marriage as a legal matter - a contract devoid of belief or emotions. Very unromantic, but generally practical.
So for me the question is quite straightforward: Should lgbt people have equality in law? If yes then they should be allowed to get married (as any other two consenting adults).