Totem wrote:
Let me turn that around, Tare, and answer your question with a question. As long as I hurt no one while driving 140 mph through a neighborhood, why shouldn't I be allowed to do so? Your statement has several assumptions in it which have not been proven or validated except by sketchy anecdotal evidence at best: Homosexual marriages do not harm to the community at large and children specifically. And while adoptions by gays are allowed, that is not in any way a slam dunk as to any long term effects on the children.
Ok, you can drive through the neighborhood at 140 mph then, if you can guarantee that no one will be affected by. Fair? I fail to see the connection between the two...maybe I'm missing something. Two gay persons get married. What does this do? Well, they have monogamous gay sex. Hmmm...nope,doesn't affect me. They live in my neighborhood. Hmmm...nope, doesn't affect me. They possibly present a greater risk for disease to be spread to me or my loved ones. Hmmm...no more than many straight people that already live in my neighborhood. Two gay persons adopt a child. Please tell me we are not doing the "and turn him/her into a gay person" thing here. Unless they are beating their child, hmmm, nope, doesn't affect me. You tearing through my neighborhood and actively posing a risk to my life is quite different than the union of two people I don't even know. I'm having a hard time making the leap into another person's bedroom and knowing how that could possibly have an effect on my life. Remember Squiggles, Totem? I don't care if you put a hamster up your **** every night! It doesn't affect me.
Quote:
So what the question boils down to is this: What are we as a society willing to negotiate on? And if one standard is mallable why should it not be mallable for another particular "minority" (I use that word cringingly, since gays are not a minority in my opinion as defined by the common understanding of it)?
I think you have hit the nail on the head here. This entire debate is about what we are willing to change as a society. I can't imagine that changes such as these are ever simple. I support gay marriage because I see no valid argument that convinces me of certain threat to my well-being, or change to my life. I might not support the legalization of incest - because that does pose a marked change to my lifestyle, as a teacher. Not to mention the medical and other care professionals that have to deal with the problems associated with inbreeding. Yeah, it is a double standard. I am not saying it's not, but what it boils down to for me is, how will said action change my life or affect my well-being. Gay marriage does neither.
And, we are kind of losing sight of the original idea here, which is why gays are not partaking in marriage, when they are able to. I am not sure, but maybe it has more to do with a resistance of the "old guard" ideals. Maybe just knowing that they rallied for, and achieved, the right is enough. I don't know....