Thomas Jefferson said something regarding religion that fits...something along the lines of "it neither breaks my leg nor picks my pocket if my neighbor believes in no god or twenty." The same is true here. There has never been a rational argument as to why gay marriage hurts anyone, physically or financially.
Marriage, being a religious rite, is specifically off limits to the government. Family, on the other hand, is the fundamental unit of a country and therefore is the business of the government. The question ought to be not "what constitutes a marriage?" but "what constitutes a family?" If two people mutually support one another physically and financially, with or without raising children together, why should it matter if they are two men, two women, or even sister and brother? There's absolutely nothing in that definition of family that allows or prohibits sex. Married people might not have sex and still be considered lawfully married.
What's demeaning to the definition of marriage and family is not that it might involve same-gender adults, but that people equate it with nothing more than a license to have sex - and then presume to make it the government's business whether there should be any limitations to that beyond "consenting adults".
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2006-06-07 04:50 am (UTC)Marriage, being a religious rite, is specifically off limits to the government. Family, on the other hand, is the fundamental unit of a country and therefore is the business of the government. The question ought to be not "what constitutes a marriage?" but "what constitutes a family?" If two people mutually support one another physically and financially, with or without raising children together, why should it matter if they are two men, two women, or even sister and brother? There's absolutely nothing in that definition of family that allows or prohibits sex. Married people might not have sex and still be considered lawfully married.
What's demeaning to the definition of marriage and family is not that it might involve same-gender adults, but that people equate it with nothing more than a license to have sex - and then presume to make it the government's business whether there should be any limitations to that beyond "consenting adults".