California Voters Approve Gay-Marriage Ban

We Are Not Arguing Over Chicken

Rex as I try to study human behavior, and I am sure that I am getting it all somewhat wrong but from my view point everyone of us apes are looking at this from our own group mentality and unless we support all human rights we will continue to go down this same road that leads to our own destruction.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffBo3nEUkQw[/youtube]

I expect I'm about to get shot down but, for my part, I am against gay marriage. I am not Christian and I have nothing at all against homosexuals - one of my best friends is gay and I have discussed this issue with him - but I don't see the need for homosexual couples to be granted a traditionally heterosexual rite (that's rite, not right). This is a heterosexual tradition. Can't we invent a new status for gay couples? Allowing gays a church wedding is as pointlessly inflamatory as people drawing Mohamed. The homosexual lifestyle is clearly defined as sinful in all religions so why campaign to be allowed to take part in this fundamentally religious ceremony?

There are plenty of heterosexual couples who, being atheist, opt not to marry. They are still permitted to live together, and share property together, etc. Homosexual couples should have exactly the same rights a s such couples and precisely the same rights as married hetero couples have in the eyes of the law. Why fight for the ceremony and the religious status of a marriage when the self-same religions have cast you out?

My chief concern, however, is that allowing gay marriage opens the flood gates for gay couples adopting. I am 100% against this. I work as a teacher and I saw the bullying and confusion one of my wards went through when his parents split up and he moved in with his mum and her lesbian lover. I know there are plenty of examples of hetero couples not raising kids well, but, in my opinion - and that is all it is - the healthiest and most balanced way to raise a child is with a father and mother; two sexually distinct role models.

For the record - I always vote the equivalent of liberal in UK elections. I was also a member of the British socialist party for a number of years. I really am not a right wing, red neck hick.

Also I don't recall you presenting any psychiatric credentials to make the family assessments that you have .

in my opinion - and that is all it is - the healthiest and most balanced way to raise a child is with a father and mother

To be honest, Rex, the issue rarely comes up in English Lit, so you can sleep sound: the kids of Great Britain are safe from my fervent hatred of equality.

I am aware marriage is a civil ceremony, but surely you wouldn't disagree that the status it imposes on a couple - of being husband and wife - is, at it's origins, a religious one, where fidelity is promised for life. Whether you sign the dotted line in a church or registry office you are still signing up to an ancient religious tradition.

If you had remained calm and read my post properly, you would have seen that I am actually all for equality. I said that gay couples should be given all the legal rights of heterosexual married couples. I just don't see the point of the essentially religious ceremony. If it were up to me, I'd get rid of marriage for straight couples too. People should just live together and all have the same rights.

I still don't believe gays should be allowed to adopt. Weirdly, my gay friend in Italy concurs, though, as a rider, his reasoning is that gay adoption inflicts upon the child all the prejudice that gays themselves face and it is that prejudice that should be fought before gays adopting can even be discussed. Our small minded world is not ready for gay adoption.

I did calmly read your post and I calmly replied.

RexRed wrote...

Quote:

I did calmly read your post and I calmly replied.

Actually you called into question my ability to do my job well. Off-topic and personal. But let's let bygones be bygones.

I think it's admirable how strongly you feel about this issue and how staunchly you defend your opinions. I, nevertheless, hold to mine. When it comes to it, should it come to it, and we vote differently on the issue in some referendum, I'd hope that, whatever the result of the referendum, we'd agree that the decision of the majority is to be applied. Then we'd go to a pub, shake hands, and continue to discuss it freely over a pint.

In my country, that's called democracy.