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This question was sparked by a thread over in the Austin forum, and I am very curious: do any atheists out there oppose gay marriage?
And I'm not looking for reasons why people are "against" marriage between any two people - that is a different argument altogether.
I want to hear from anyone who does not believe in a god but who also believes that marriage should be defined as a "union between a man and a woman".
Are you out there? If so, why do you feel this way?
I fully support my gay friends in their quest to be treated equally. Let 'em get married, why should only heterosexuals have to suffer?
Well I'll butt in once more to state that the above is my argument FOR gay marriage (or civil unions, which is my personal answer). If we (I'm an American) truly believe in the seperation of church and state, and truly believe in justice for all, and in equal rights for every citizen, then it appears to me that fighting for these rights should be the appropriate Christian thing to do. If not, then the position is a hypocrytical one, IMO.
How can it be equal if it is called a different name just because they are gay? This is what they call "equal but separate" They tried that with African Americans too, and guess what it wasn't equal.
I do appreciate your support for legal recognition though it is very admirable, I just wanted you to see how we cannot be equal if we insist on separating their marriages from ours. It's like saying "yeah you can have all the same rights, but you can't call it marriage because that makes us uncomfortable." Do you see how it can still be discriminatory?
Yes it is, and my son is helping me learn, what to do and what not to do. So hopefully with everyones help I will do better. And there are days I should just stay off these boards, lol, if you know what I mean. Cause I sometimes let personal problems cloud my thought process.
To the OP, I support gay marriage in principle, voted against a ban in my state, etc., but as a scholar of the constitution I'm skeptical of some of the arguments that have been made to force it though via the judiciary. I don't think "equal protection" means exactly what these advocates think it means. But I'm not sure that's the sort of objection your question was meant to cover.
To the OP, I support gay marriage in principle, voted against a ban in my state, etc., but as a scholar of the constitution I'm skeptical of some of the arguments that have been made to force it though via the judiciary. I don't think "equal protection" means exactly what these advocates think it means. But I'm not sure that's the sort of objection your question was meant to cover.
Well, I posted this thread about 16 months ago - and I've read far more about gays in US society on this R&P forum than I ever needed to since then - but I was really looking for any secular objection at all.
I understand the religious one. And my assumption (however incorrect) was that the religious objection is at the base of any objections to it.
Maybe you have some Constitutional reasons for why it should not be allowed?
Basically I just want to know if anybody whose politics are not motivated by religion are OK with same-sex partnerships but still not OK with gay marriage. If I remember correctly, this thread led me to a couple atheists who were simply anti-gay but I don't recall any (secular) reasons for anti-gay marriage.
If there are any atheists or those who oppose gay marriage for a non religious reason then they're certainly not active politically in trying to have gay marriage banned in every state they can like the religious right has been doing for years. I don't see any reason to be opposed to it, in fact if society would be supportive of same sex couples being allowed to have the legal advantages of being recognized as a couple which would include such things as wills, health insurance, and all of the things that heterosexual couples take for granted I think it would make society in general more stable in the sense that gay couples would be agreeing to take on the responsibility of a monogomous relationship. It's also possible that if society was accepting of gay couples that we might even see a reduction in the number of AIDS cases which are in general the result of sex with multiple partners which greatly increases the risk. I don't pretend to have a great deal of knowledge regarding how large a percentage of gays and lesbians in general would want to establish a legal partnership but if the stigma were removed and it became acceptable I suspect that the majority would want to have meaningful relationships that were legal and protected by law. I think that would be a very positive thing.
I was reading this thread and realised I had no idea where Australia stood on the gay marriage issue. I thought we had a pretty good level of tolerance and acceptance in the community, after all we have the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney every year. I personally have had many friends who are gay and some I thought were married. I looked up what the actual laws were and apparently gay couples can have a legal partnership with all of the same legal rights and privileges of a hetero marriage.But they cannot call themselves married as that only applies to male/female relationships. I thought this was ridiculous, why give people all of the rights of marriage but not allow them to say they are married? Although on the other hand I am glad they at least have the legal matters sorted.
But they cannot call themselves married as that only applies to male/female relationships. I thought this was ridiculous, why give people all of the rights of marriage but not allow them to say they are married? Although on the other hand I am glad they at least have the legal matters sorted.
That is actually what many people would like to have in the US and they're called civil unions as oppossed to marriage. For some reason the word marriage gets alot of people here riled up because they believe that automatically means a male and female couple. A civil union would at least allow gay people to establish themselves as a legal couple but of course the majority of Americans are even opposed to that. Even liberal California passed an antigay marriage law recently.
Hummmm, ya know..... It is really none of my business who marries whom. I do find it difficult to get worked up over gay marriage, since I am straight, I doubt that it would affect me personally. I do believe that it is not up to the government to determine who may marry (assuming mental competence and age of consent) whom, or that the government or the church should have any legitimate right to object, in any legally binding way, to the marriage of anyone. If two adult human beings are mentally somewhat sound, capable of understanding the union they are entering, as long as they are of the same specie and there is no coertion involved-----why not? I would be tempted to (were I king of the universe) to disallow Republicans the right to produce more than one offspring- this is more of a political reservation of mine (I suspect all human beings have some form of bias) I certainly do have mine, not based on gender alignment, race, hair color, but, this little notion is one of my daydreams, not something to be taken seriously, just a mental amusement I allow myself, after all, I am not responsible for my thoughts, I am responsible for my actions.
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So true
