The problem with gay marriage

[Micro2Macro]

Serious question:

Can a person believe that a gay couple should have the right to live a free and happy life without being ridiculed by people for their choice, but also believe that marriage is specifically a traditional, sacred (contract? couldn't think of better word) between a man and a woman, and that to have any other marry is essentially breaking this sacred tradition?.....

....Without being condemned as a homophobic hater of gays or apologist or whatever the internet calls people who disagree these days.

Should that person not also have the right to not have the mob hurl things at them? The mob that hurls at the person who does not believe in gay marriage, is quite similar to those who hurl at people for being gay.

Agree/disagree?

[NightGizmo]

Serious question:

Can a person believe that a gay couple should have the right to live a free and happy life without being ridiculed by people for their choice, but also believe that marriage is specifically a traditional, sacred (contract? couldn't think of better word) between a man and a woman, and that to have any other marry is essentially breaking this sacred tradition?.....

....Without being condemned as a homophobic hater of gays or apologist or whatever the internet calls people who disagree these days.

Should that person not also have the right to not have the mob hurl things at them? The mob that hurls at the person who does not believe in gay marriage, is quite similar to those who hurl at people for being gay.

Agree/disagree?

You're right, there shouldn't be any threat of violence for their beliefs or statements.

But I personally don't see how someone could be against same-sex marriage without holding some kind of negative bias against gay couples. Especially since marriage gives so many additional rights to the couple, so it's much more of a legal mechanism than any specific religious one.

Plus, you might think it's a sacred tradition, but there are tons of straight marriages out there that probably do not fit the categories of sacred or traditional. If it's OK for straight people to marry for non-traditional and non-sacred reasons, why not gay couples? IMO, it's because of a bias against them.

[wufwugy]

You're right, there shouldn't be any threat of violence for their beliefs or statements.

But I personally don't see how someone could be against same-sex marriage without holding some kind of negative bias against gay couples. Especially since marriage gives so many additional rights to the couple, so it's much more of a legal mechanism than any specific religious one.

Plus, you might think it's a sacred tradition, but there are tons of straight marriages out there that probably do not fit the categories of sacred or traditional. If it's OK for straight people to marry for non-traditional and non-sacred reasons, why not gay couples? IMO, it's because of a bias against them.

This gets little play in the popular discussion of gay marriage, but its most significant detraction comes from people who view gay marriage as eroding the values that make for a strong, moral, progressing, and sustainable society: the nuclear family. The desire to promote the nuclear family is where everything from anti-fornication to anti-gay mostly comes from.

They have a lot of really good points that nobody else seems to care about. The dissolution of the nuclear family really does look like it could be the primary driver of the dissolution of the types of values at the foundation of the society. Everything from kids being undisciplined disrespectful shits to deadbeat dads to whiny teenagers to crazy women can be related quite well to the dissolution of the family. In the minds of many religious people, gay marriage is just another of the many ways the family is dissolved.

I hold the same view that Savy holds. I support freedom and choice, so I think the government should have no part in marriage and people should be free to interpret it as they and their selected associations deem fit. But that doesn't negate the fact that gay marriage is one of the several things that has been overturning a great deal of what we know works well for humans. That's also not to say that things may be better with gay marriage. I don't know. I just think it's important to understand why many religious are against gay marriage instead of just calling them bigots and homophobes.