Decius wrote:
] Why? If two gay people decide to get married in that church
] what business is it of yours? What impact does it have on you?
] Why do you care?
]
] Why do you feel the need to say "this far and no further" to
] something that has nothing to do with you?

Alright, I'm speaking as a single person here, and not as a married person, but let me try to take this one on anyway. "Marriage" is not just a legal term, it's an emotional *foundation* for the vast majority of adults in the world, that has *everything* to do with them. Their marriage is their center. The choice of who to marry is an enormously personal and powerful decision, that has ramifications through all parts of a person's life -- their family, their finances, their emotional well-being, their health, their lifetime goals, *everything*. Just like people wear a wedding ring every single day of their adult lives, they are aware of their marriage with nearly every breath they take. To say that marriage isn't important is like saying that children aren't important.

There was a reality TV show on a year or so ago, called "Married by America". Different couples were brought together basically by audience vote, and if they had chemistry, were given the opportunity to marry on the show. One or two of the couples *did* have great chemistry, but every single one of them, when it got to the point of saying, "I do," declined. They said that marriage was too important a decision to be made lightly. That the institution of marriage was sacred to them, and they wouldn't cheapen it by going through with it in a frivolous manner.

The concept of marriage isn't just about Christianity or religion or conservative politics -- marriage is pretty much as intense a personal decision as a human being can make, and if many people want to defend the sanctity of that concept, I can't blame them.

Now having said that, I have to speak for my own views, which is that I'm not deadset against the idea of gay marriage. I do have serious reservations though, because letting gays marry is not just about letting society formally sanction the idea of homosexual relationships -- it opens up an enormous can of worms involving legal and financial questions that are just barely handled by our legal system for heteros, let alone adding the complexity of gay relationships. If we allow marriage, then we have to deal with the longer term ramifications: Gay divorce? Gay alimony? Gay child support? Property ownership? Jointly-filed taxes? Estate planning? Battles over wills and death benefits? It's not just about letting a gay man put his partner on his health insurance policy, there's a whole slew of legal battles that would be opened up by allowing gay marriages.

So again, I have to say that I don't think the gay marriage issue is just related to gay-bashing or conservative Christian politics -- there's a lot more at stake.

RE: The Values-Vote Myth