Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny Stew
Are you serious with this?
To the best of your knowledge, slavery was abolished, blacks were allowed to vote, and schools were de-segregated without protestation from people in this country? Everything went smoothly with that and the government didn't have to step in at all?
Unlike marriage, civil unions are not recognized equally in every state. A civil union in one state can be completely void in another.
Additionally, there is a total of approximately 1,400 state & federal benefits for married couples as opposed to "unionized" couples.
Simply put, civil unions are not equal to marriage.
You're making some huge assumptions about me. I have friends and family members who are Republican and I'm very open to hearing opinions that differ from my own. However, bigotry is inexcusable in my eyes. And I have not yet heard one single valid reason to oppose gay marriage, that wasn't rooted in bigotry.
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Of course there was resistance. You'd get resistance to the civil rights bill now. It speaks volumes that you have to reach back 50 years to come up with your argument.
Secondly, what you cited about 1400 benefits not being available to civil unionized couples is a flat out lie. I dare you to cite them all.
There are several arguments agains gay marriage that do not involve bigotry. There is the slippery slope argument of where does it stop: polygamy, sibling marriage, etc. Here's a second one, you can turn that argument on its head. Why shouldn't I be allowed to marry my brother or sister? If it is just about conferring rights, there would be no reason to object to it. Seriously, if you are for gay marriage, then why can't you marry your siblings, your roommate, anyone at all that you don't have a romantic link with? Most gay marriage proponents would deny rights to these people. How about Larry and Balki, why shouldn't they marry? They are not romantically involved with one another, but obviously they have a stake in one anothers lives?
Perhaps if you listened more, you might hear more valid arguments. Most of what I've seen here is that people who are for gay marriage create red herrings by presenting arguments about "who" the other side is and making cartoons out of them, more than analyzing or listening to the arguments. Hell, even Obama doesn't support gay marriage. He said so at Saddleback.