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Same-sex unions going mainstream?
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We can only hope that bigotry and discrimination based on people's personal relationships can be eliminated.
If that's what gays are looking for, good luck to them. There's still more bigotry and hatred toward the LDS religion than against most ethnic groups. And people are completely tolerant of it.
If any "loving relationship" where to be adopted, wouldn't that also open the door wide open to polygyny and other polygamous sexual relationships--surely these forms of "loving relationships" are entitled to at least the same protections as any LGBT relationship--wouldn't they? Politics aside, there is FAR more scientific evidence to support a genetic predisposition to these kinds of relationships than there is for LGBT sexual preferences.
How about "loving relationships" between children and older men, or older women, both gay or straight? We've had any number of teachers "lovingly" attracted to their middle-school students over the last few years; how would we justify not recognizing these as well?
Truth is, we don't have to redefine marriage to decide not to persecute or discriminate against LGBTs. On the same token, the law of unintended consequences always steps in when we start changing things for reasons of political expediency or "fairness."
In Scandinavia, they redefined marriage to include LGBTs: the result was the institution didn't expand, it became almost non-existent. --Oops.
Someone holding on to the idea that "God" doesn't approve of homosexuality yet ignoring the other ways of life condoned in the Bible is simply holding on to an ancient hatred. This was not what "God" wanted, it was what the prejudice of the writers of scripture wanted.
You are so right! I loved the comment.
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Based on the majority of the comments here, Pope seems to have been right. Homosexuality is wrong. Period. Frequency does not denote respectability, nor does it determine morality. Truth is truth no matter the age. Mock it if you will, you have that right and that God given choice. But don't think that others will let you cram your beliefs down our throats or reconstruct your model of morality as the public norm. You have a right to be an advocate for your beliefs, I have a right to oppose them based on my beliefs.
Put me down as another who stands on the side of the true and traditional definition of marriage and family.
If you oppose homosexuality and gay marriage, cry it in the streets, but do not cram it down the throats of others by legislating your view of the world onto others.
If you don't like gay marriage I'm certainly not going to force you to get gay married. I hope you'd return the favor with respect to straight marriage.
I don't see how legalizing same sex unions will disintegrate my heterosexual marriage. Marriages disintegrate because of the actions of the people in the marriage and not because of some law. However, I might not be as well informed as others on the subject.
There would be a few "die hards" that would accept only US dollars, but as time went by and the dollar became more scarce, foreign currencies would steadily gain acceptance throughout the nation. Regional preferences would develop as the dominant foreign currency became more prominant (mexican peso in Arizona, Texas and parts of California; Canadian dollar in Montana, etc.). The destruction of the dollar in these areas would be complete.
Interpretation: the US dollar is traditional marriage and traditional family life; the foreign currencies are the "alternative lifestyles" of gay marriage or polygamy.
Some may argue that the "dollar" is not "hurt" by the adoption/acceptance of "foreign currencies", but this does not square with the fact that the value of the "dollar" would be diminished in direct proportion to the acceptance of the "foreign currency".
The strength of our society is dependent upon the strength of our most fundamental institutions. Marriage between a man and a woman is THE most basic societal unit.
It's anybodys choice to think and believe as they want, but it is not their right to put their beliefs on anyone else.
But studies have shown that homosexuals in highly tolerant nations, where gay unions are legal (Scandanavian nations), have rates just as bad as the US. More tolerance and a right to marry didn't help them in the least in those areas.
And why should gays want to marry? They can't have children naturally. It does not help them adopt. (Single people can adopt in some states.) In some cases it actually would increase their tax burden. Many religions are not going to condone the union. So why marry?
In the 1960's, marriage was partly abandoned by the political left. "Who needs a piece of paper to say I love someone?"
It looks to me that for the homosexual community this is a political battle that isn't really worth fighting . Give your partners power of attorney, throw a party and announce your devotion to each other. But why fight for a label that really will not help you?
It is dishonest to pretend that homosexuality is not about sex, but is only about loving, committed relationships and civil rights. By avoiding all reference to sexual behavior, those who promote homosexuality are simply manipulating the public's goodwill.
I love and appreciate, and respect gays as humans beings, but don't ask me to condone something that historically cannot perpetuate the human race more than one generation. Some vice is doomed to it's own failure to reproduce.
Were not gonna take it anymore!"
Gays are free to practice sex the same as heterosexuals are. Just because people point out that homosexuality is immoral, doesn't mean we impose our values on Gays. Go ahead and sin, but just because doing this doesn't feel acceptable, don't make us redefine everything to make you feel accepted.
Heterosexuals are not keeping Gays from the rights of marriage. The actions of Gays are keeping themselves from those rights. Marriage is between a man and a woman, and if that is what Gays want, then who is stopping them?
Why does society have to redefine everything for the selfish gratifications of a few? Homosexuals have redefined the word gay, which used to mean happy. The word later took on the meaning of someone who practices homosexuality. And more recently, they want us to accept a new meaning: anyone with homosexual leanings were born that way, which eliminates choice. But no one is taking choice away from Gays, but themselves.
Gays freely give up choice by choosing things that do not offer them the same opportunities. Having kids naturally was not taken away by us, either.
A person who is 100% secure with their sexuality, really doesn't care one way or the other about anybody elses.
What this boils down to is a concerted effort to legitimize immoral behavior - period!
I also just don't understand if 2 people of the same sex who love each other want to marry, how it effects any one of you who are against it. How exactly does it impact your life? Why do you care so much about something that has absolutely NOTHING to do with you?
Actually, the heterosexual marriage rate in Denmark has been climbing since the passage of their same-sex marriage law. Danish heterosexual marriage rates are the highest since the 1970s. Heterosexual marriage rates in Sweeden, Norway and Iceland are all higher than before homosexual marriages were legalized.
"Oops", indeed.
Whether or not you agree with gay marriage does not deflate the reasons why people seek it.
There are gay people of all ages, but the discussion and the issue is whether CONSENTING ADULTS all should have the same rights regardless of their sexual preference. Of course, the answer is yes in a democratic society. Someone also pointed out that they don't believe in any religious system that is against them. Of course they don't! That is their right and it's not anybody else's right to enforce their religion on anyone else. We live in a free society with free religious beliefs (or no religious belief necessary at all).
Keep church beliefs in church and civil rights where they belong.
I don't think so. So I'm white, fat, & Christen. (And straight) guess I'm just stuck with paying the bill for everyone else.
So homosexual couples have to have wills that outline what they want done with their property after they die. And this is persecution?
Regarding the divorce issue:
So homosexual couples are going to help society out with the stability of their relationships? I agree that society is melting down on the home front, but this argument doesn't logically lead to any need to recognize legal unions for same-gender couples.
Someone please prove that civil unions/marriages or whatever will benefit society as a whole. Then you will have the beginnings of a decent argument for creating and protecting same-gender unions.
We already know that the experiments in Europe haven't really helped same-gender couples with mental health issues or the suicide rate. Why not? Do civil unions help homosexual couples in similar ways that marriage helps traditional couples? How stable are civil unions? Again, how will it help homosexuals contribute to society as a whole?
So until these questions are answered, homosexual couples can create wills (most heterosexual couples, married and unmarried, already do) to fix their legal issues and stop dreaming that redefining marriage is going to somehow make them happy. It probably won't!
Study history and see what happened to societies which allowed debauchery and immorality. They all collapsed.
God loves all people, but he does not love what many of them do. He sets the standards. We decided to come here and follow his plan and use our agency.
Some of you may deny what I have said, but you have not experienced what I have experienced. My experiences have affirmed to me that there is a loving God, who cries because his children are denying him and making choices which will not lead them back to him.
Agency is a precious gift, only if you use it correctly.
Our prophet speaks for God. He is his mouthpiece on this earth. Search, pray and study and you can find the truth of God.
you're wrong, consider yourself corrected.
It's not an issue of gays needing MORE rights, it's a matter of being able to have the SAME rights as hetero couples. Marriage confers many rights, protections, and benefits - both legal and practical.
I tend to agree with the idea that MARRIAGE should be strictly a religious rite and institution, and not a function of the state, and that any couple, straight or gay, should be allowed MARRIAGE from or within a religious organization which will recognize and perform such ceremony. CIVIL UNIONS would be non-religious unions with the same benefits and, rights, and obligations, and similarly be available to both heterosexual and homosexual couples.
Tell me again how traditional marriage and family will suffer when ONLY 93-97% of marriages/unions are heterosexual?
If you don't like homosexual marriages or unions, then don't enter into one.
"Homosexuals constitute somewhere between 1% and 3% of the US population."
If that is a more accurate figure, then, if all homosexuals got married that would leave 97-99% of all marriages as heterosexual.
Why, again, would only 97-99% of marriages being heterosexual/traditional represent a threat to the traditional marriage? What, exactly, would be threatened? How? Why?
Again, if you don't believe in homosexual marriages or civil unions, then don't enter into one. The fact that others do does not force you to do so. Nor does it diminish your rights, responsibilities or obligations within your heterosexual marriage.
Nor does it force onto you or your marriage anyone else's "agenda." Your marriage is perfectly untouched.
When mixed race marriages became legal where they had been previously outlawed did not force anyone to marry a person of another race.
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