Hooray. Its about time. If your gay or straight everyone deserves the right to legally marry the person they love . Everyone deserves to be treated with kindness .
I received many responses. Some were from people that seemed religion / gay don't go together. Gay people can be religious . My god doesn't care if we are hetersexual or gay. One woman said my comment was to naive..when I said you should be able to marry the person you love. Her moronic response was we shouldn't be able to marry our siblings.....doesn't that go without saying?
I had to take some time to see how I felt about this. You see, I am torn. I am all for everyone loving who they love. However, I do believe that marriage is between a man and a woman.
I am not going to get into a debate with anyone on my feelings, that is what they are MY feelings. I show all people kindness and respect. I would appreciate the same back.
Wild Woman, your argument about this being a "State Issue" is eerily similar to arguments made about slavery in 1850's and 1860's (not to mention Cvil Rights 100 years later).
Polygamy is not limited to "two consenting adults," so it is a separate issue entirely. It is easy to make arguments about why polygamy is unhealthy for the individuals involved (why there are always victims). Can you make a valid (non-religious) argument for why gay marriage is harmful to the couple or to society? Huge difference! There is no slippery slope, as the situations are vastly different.
While gay marriage is about equality and all marriages being equally valid according to the law, the biggest reason this decision is so important has to do with legal rights - health insurance, health care decisions, marital benefits, etc.
This isn't about shoving their relationship down anyone's throat. It's about the very real need for same sex couples to be able to have the same rights as any other married couple.
Wild women I disagree it's a constitutional issue! To me it falls under the seperate on of church and state and the pursuit if life liberty and happiness. Since when does the morality of many get to dictate how a minority lives their lives? Our country is about freedom as long as you do not impede on someone else's rights.
I'm a Christian but find it incredibly arrogant for the right wing to continue to feel they get to dictate how everyone else lives and what rights they are willing to grant to other people. It's amazing how people just want to ignore the constitution based on their relgiius beliefs.
i'm over the moon.
look at the legacy the president is going to leave. pulled us out of the economic spiral. passed the ACA, which although flawed (because it got so hacked about in the effort to get it passed at all) is a huge boon over the *nothing* we had before, 86-ed osama, KEPT the ACA, presided over legalizing gay marriage.......
all in the face of those who were so sure that the black guy was going to crash and burn america.
it's freakin' AWESOME.
oh, and by the way, the SCOTUS also struck down key provisions of the nasty 'three strikes' law too.
it's like i woke up this week in a truly free society, almost.
ETA the same dire predictions about parents marrying their children, and people marrying livestock, happened when interracial marriage became legal. squawk squawk squawk.
:) khairete
S.
Marriage is so much more than two people in love being able to live together etc. It also allows the spouse to speak or you if you are incapacitated in any way. If your spouse knows your wishes about life support, or organ donation he/she can speak for you. It also give each person legal rights to the home and property you have built together. If two people heterosexual or gay live together and the home is only in one person's name and this person dies his/her family can toss you out with nothing, unless you have documentation to prove your rights.
Marriage gives you these rights.
Your partner's family no longer have more rights than you do.
I am very happy. Equal rights are always a good thing. When talking with my family I said that the feelings gay people are having now must be very similar to what or grandmothers and great grandmothers felt when they were finally able to vote. Surely all of the women and mothers on this site will agree that that change was very good indeed.
On another note, why would anyone want to marry their pet? Honestly, I have heard that used against gay marriage for years and I just don't get it.
And now I am off to the pride parade!
My opinion? It was a STATE issue and NOT a federal issue. And WE THE PEOPLE had already spoken on a state level. Sorry people don't understand that.
Slippery slope we are on...now polygamists are going to want their "legality" and now we will have more law suits and people petitioning the courts to marry their pet(s).
Being treated with kindness is much different than DEMANDING people accept things they don't feel are right.
I have plenty of gay friends. One married her partner in California when the state made it "legal". She didn't shove it down anyone's throat and demand anything.
Oh well. The slippery slope has begun.
ETA-oops forgot my main point to the "states right" camp:
Y'all should read your handy dandy constitution more!
"No state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
States cannot defy the constitution. EVER. PERIOD.
And the Supreme Court has identified marriage as a constitutional right FOURTEEN TIMES.
DOMA--unconstitutional--remember?
Sure glad abortion wasn't a state issue.
It's not a "States issue" (as Jeb! Or Bobby Jindal might like you to believe).
There are 138 Federal (federal alone!) rights gained through legal marriage.
Social Security Benefits, tax benefits, COBRA, estate planning, military benefits, medical benefits, family benefits, housing benefits, consumer benefits, plus other legal benefits & protection.
For the religious objectors? Don't do it.
I've never personally known anyone who wanted to marry their pet (although the implied reference to bestiality is truly disgusting to me) but I've known many gay people who've been living together for decades that can now legally decide things like medical care for their spouse.
Oh--I'm sure there were a WHOLE lot of people that objected to the abolishment of slavery too? Guess what? No O. cared what they thought either when the country, instead, decided to move FORWARD!
I have read a lot about how today's interpretation of the bible's mention of gay relationships is faulty and questionable. I have read all the other "thou shalt nots" (-divorce, remarriage after divorce, eating pork, mixing of materials in our clothes, etc) that modern day American Christians pick-and-choose at will. But it's not even that complicated. it's much, much simpler than that.
Freedom of religion. One of the very first, most basic beliefs our country was founded on. There's no room for anti-gay-marriage laws anywhere in this country. That's it.
In America, NO religion has the right to impose its beliefs on anyone else. Not even the all-mighty Christian Right.
Period.
I'm happy that a majority of people in this country are happy and I am thrilled for my gay friends because I think gay couples needed to have protection under the law like married couples although I would have preferred that we had civil unions for gays and kept marriage between a man and a woman. Your comment that EVERYONE deserves the right to legally marry the person they love is naive in my opinion. Does a brother and sister deserve the right to marry? Can a man marry his dog? Can a man marry 3 woman? Why can't the 50 year old man and the 12 year old girl that fell in love over the Internet get married? You may say because she is a child but isn't 18 just an arbitrary number. Perhaps she FEELS like she is a woman at 12 and she knows she is in love. This is the slippery slope.
Certainly!
The topic's been covered by a few posts:
