Gay marriage

[inviere1644]

Ok, as a moderate gay man I'm always interested to see what people on the liberal and conservative spectrums have to say about this issue. So, is it right or wrong? why or why not?

[ChaosBorders]

Ok, as a moderate gay man I'm always interested to see what people on the liberal and conservative spectrums have to say about this issue. So, is it right or wrong? why or why not?

As a moderate straight man, I'm in support of gay marriage. I believe strongly that being gay is not a choice, and that asking gay people to suppress sexual urges completely for their whole life is just ridiculous. They should have the same option to enter into a loving and committed relationship as heterosexuals.

[LiamOS]

Even if the Bible says it's wrong, I don't think Jesus'd be all too cool with people protesting homosexual marriages and saying "God hates fags."
If he hated them, he'd not have made them, eh?

[Goat]

Even if the Bible says it's wrong, I don't think Jesus'd be all too cool with people protesting homosexual marriages and saying "God hates fags."
If he hated them, he'd not have made them, eh?

This is where the religious fundamentalist will pull out the 'Free Will Card'. It's a 'let us absolve God of all our fuzzy thinking,".

[LiamOS]

And that's where I pull out the 'no free will' card.
That ends two ways:
-They tell me I'm simply wrong.
-They admit that I'm right and they say that gay marriage is still wrong.

People scare me.

[cnorman18]

As a moderate straight Jewish guy, I am in support of gay marriage. I don't believe in unfairness and discrimination. Why should the law discriminate against straight people and only excuse GAYS from the hassles and stresses of being married? Let them have the chance to be as miserable as the rest of us.

Tongue in cheek, of course. I'm beginning the most wonderful and fulfilling relationship of my life, and it's heartbreaking to think that that is forbidden to others because of the bigotry and prejudices and self-righteousness of a few.

Barring the abuse of children, it's nobody else's damn business who others love and sleep with.

[Lux]

I´m very pro-gay marriage. And as of last month, I can say for the first time in my life that I am proud of an action taken by my country´s government: Argentina is the first Latinamerican country to legalize gay marriage and grant homosexual married couples the exact same benefits and reresponsibilitiestraight couples have.

I think that forbidding gay marriage, or even giving it a different name or status (civil unions, etc) only help to further separate them from everyone else, thus continuing the long history of discrimination suffered by homosexuals. Granting them the same rights with the same names is the first step towards society´s real acceptance.

[Defender of Truth]

Ok, as a moderate gay man I'm always interested to see what people on the liberal and conservative spectrums have to say about this issue.

I've always found that people are usually split on this topic. A google search revealed that I was correct. The first several links said that people were pretty much split evenly.

The first and second links that came up testify to this, and a little further down, more prominent sources such as opposingviews.com and cbsnews concur as well.

My question is, why? Why are so many people split on this subject if, as many claim, morality is engrained in us by evolution. Let's suppose homosexuality is detrimental to the human race. According to the model that evolution instilled morality in us based on what was best for our species, why wouldn't everyone feel like it was morally wrong? I can understand a few exceptions, but billions of people split? Let's suppose on the other hand that homosexuality has no negative drawbacks whatsoever. There would be no need for us to evolve a sense that homosexuality is morally wrong. So why do so many feel that way?

Just curious to hear how this fits with the moral evolution model.

DoT

[ChaosBorders]

Let's suppose on the other hand that homosexuality has no negative drawbacks whatsoever. There would be no need for us to evolve a sense that homosexuality is morally wrong.

Eh, not exactly. Homosexuality has no inherent drawbacks regarding the species, but they are different, and a minority group. In the days when humanity traveled in bands of a few dozen people, 'different' meant 'probably trying to kill you and steal your food' and 'minority' meant 'there's less of them, so let's kill them and steal their food'. Humans have discriminated against minorities since the beginning because doing so increased their chance of survival. But that's no longer true, and something our society now recognizes mostly as being detrimental. Thus much of our society is coming around and saying 'these people aren't so bad, and they aren't really so different just because of [insert characteristic], so I should treat them how I would want to be treated'. But there's still plenty of people who grow up without much exposure to the minority (in this case homosexuals) and thus still trend towards the inherent and often subconcious belief they are somehow a threat to them.

Studies indicate the more exposure people get to a minority group, and the more general acceptance that minority group gains, the less others will develop negative attitudes regarding them. Right now it's about split, but if the right for homosexuals to marry is institutionalized and protected, I can pretty much guarantee that within a few decades the vast majority of people will be supportive of it.

[cnorman18]

Ok, as a moderate gay man I'm always interested to see what people on the liberal and conservative spectrums have to say about this issue.

I've always found that people are usually split on this topic. A google search revealed that I was correct. The first several links said that people were pretty much split evenly.

The first and second links that came up testify to this, and a little further down, more prominent sources such as opposingviews.com and cbsnews concur as well.

My question is, why? Why are so many people split on this subject if, as many claim, morality is engrained in us by evolution. Let's suppose homosexuality is detrimental to the human race. According to the model that evolution instilled morality in us based on what was best for our species, why wouldn't everyone feel like it was morally wrong? I can understand a few exceptions, but billions of people split? Let's suppose on the other hand that homosexuality has no negative drawbacks whatsoever. There would be no need for us to evolve a sense that homosexuality is morally wrong. So why do so many feel that way?

Just curious to hear how this fits with the moral evolution model.

DoT

The statistics don't matter, not even a little tiny bit. At one time humans had "evolved" a sense that it was perfectly okay, and even praiseworthy, to buy and sell other human beings like cattle. I suspect that the question of slavery was "evenly split" around 1850 in the United States as well. During the Middle Ages, the overwhelming majority of people in Europe had "evolved" an absolute belief without question that Jews routinely murdered Christian children and drank their blood as a sacred religious ritual. This isn't ancient history; that belief has been espoused on this very forum in the present day.

You don't get to justify prejudice, bigotry and injustice by calling it "evolved."