Institution of marriage gathers strength in NY
With Friday night’s vote in the New York Senate, the Empire State is set to become the sixth state, in addition to the District of Columbia, in which gay marriage is legal. And because New York will be by far the largest state to take that step, the number of Americans able to marry others of the same gender will effectively double.
This is, of course, the end of Western civilization and of the foundation on which it is built, which is the institution of marriage. Or not.
Kathryn Jean Lopez, writing at the National Review’s “The Corner,” has likened the vote by elected representatives in New York to the brutal repression exercised in North Korea, bizarrely claiming that we Americans are “witnessing tyranny today that is fostered by a false sense of freedom, a tyranny that faux tolerance ferments.”
John Guardiano, writing in the American Spectator, also laments the decline of marriage:
“…. the institution of marriage is [under threat] — so much so that marriage rates in America have plummeted and out-of-wedlock births have skyrocketed.
National Review’s Rich Lowry notes, for instance, that the number of Americans in intact first marriages has dropped from 73 percent in the 1970s to as little as 39 percent today, depending on socioeconomic status. And the poorer and less educated you are, the more likely you are to suffer from the political and cultural degradation of marriage.
Just 45 percent of moderately educated, middle-income Americans are in intact first marriages. For the poorest and least-educated Americans, the corresponding figure is 39 percent.”
Personally, I’m a strong believer in marriage, both as a living arrangement for adults and as the best possible setting in which to raise children. (”Best possible,” however, should not be confused with “only;” the unpredictability of human beings and the realities of life do not allow such blanket statements.)
However, I’ve never seen even a vaguely convincing argument that gay marriage has any affect whatsoever on the status of marriage among heterosexual couples.
Guardiano, for example, tries to suggest that gay marriage has “everything” to do with some ill-defined campaign by ill-defined forces to undercut marriage and bring the country down around our ears.
“Sure, this breakdown in the family has occurred independent of the push for ‘marriage equality’,” he writes. “But it is still part and parcel of an overarching effort to undermine and deprecate traditional marriage and the traditional family. It is still part of a broader political and cultural movement to decouple marriage from its principal purpose, which is the care and raising of children.”
What nonsense.
The care and raising of children is certainly “A” purpose of marriage, and is in fact one reason that gay couples seek that right. However, it is not THE purpose of marriage.
The existence of millions of loving couples who are childless either by choice or by nature refute that claim. Marriages of older couples beyond their child-bearing years refute that claim. Guardiano and others who make such an argument actually belittle marriage by stripping it down to a crude, single-purpose functionality — the raising of children — that seeks to deny its deep emotional rewards and challenges.
The suggestion that gay marriage is part of a guerrilla effort to undercut marriage itself is further undercut by hard data. In general, gay marriage has gained a foothold in those states in which marriage is already strongest, and it is rejected in states where marriage is more threatened.
Massachusetts, the first state to make gay marriage legal, has by far the lowest annual divorce rate in the country, at a mere 1.8 percent. New York has an annual divorce rate of 2.5 percent.
Georgia, in contrast, has an annual divorce rate of 3.2 percent.
In fact, the seven jurisdictions in which gay marriage is now legal, including the District of Columbia, have an average annual divorce rate of 2.7 percent. The average annual divorce rate in the 28 states in which recognition of gay marriage is explicitly banned, including Georgia, is 3.9 percent.
For the record, the New York bill contains explicit protections to ensure that religious organizations cannot be forced to recognize gay marriage or be forced to host marriages, receptions or similar ceremonies. While such protections are probably unnecessary, I think they’re also entirely appropriate. The histrionics of Lopez and others about tyranny aside, this is not an attempt to use government to impose something; it is an attempt to convince government to allow all of its citizens, not just some, to share in the benefits, rights and obligations of a critically important human institution.
– Jay Bookman
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834 comments Add your comment
Doggone/GA
June 27th, 2011
12:58 pm
“so they think (wrongly) everything is their business.”
But they don’t want “you” butting into THEIR business.
Jimmy62
June 27th, 2011
12:58 pm
Why is the government recognizing marriage, which is a religious institution? I thought there was this whole separation of church and state thing…. The government should recognize civil unions only, and those should be between any two people.
getalife
June 27th, 2011
12:58 pm
They adopt children that need parents.
You wanted them to be born so you should want them to have people to take care of them.
It’s a good thing not bad.
Mighty Righty
June 27th, 2011
12:59 pm
Doggone/GA
June 27th, 2011
12:48 pm
“There’s a difference between a SPECIES that can’t reproduce, and the members OF a species that can’t reproduce.”
Good point. But still………survival of the fittest…….this could use further study.
t
June 27th, 2011
12:59 pm
If God approved of sodomy, he would have made them able
to reproduce by themselves.No third part help.
Doggone/GA
June 27th, 2011
12:59 pm
“Why is the government recognizing marriage, which is a religious institution?”
Backwards. Marriage is a LEGAL CONTRACT, and it is the CHURCH that is butting into a purely legal affair.
WOODSTOCK MIKE
June 27th, 2011
1:00 pm
@Common Cents
I guess Obama doesn’t agree with you…
(White House press secretary Robert Gibbs later clarified Mr. Obama’s position: “The president opposes the legalization of marijuana…he does not think that’s the right plan for America.”)
Joe Mama
June 27th, 2011
1:00 pm
Dave — “Same perversion you libs have with my wallet.”
If someone’s trying to hump your wallet, then I think a visit to Wilson’s is in order because you clearly need a new one.
Doggone/GA
June 27th, 2011
1:00 pm
“Good point. But still………survival of the fittest…….this could use further study”
Survival of the fittest is NOT all of Darwin’s theory. Altruism, for instance, is a survival tactic in some species – besides humans.
Adam
June 27th, 2011
1:01 pm
Dave R: Same perversion you libs have with my wallet
What does that mean, praytell? Because I find it hard to believe you’re talking about a blanket statement about being taxed.
waterstim
June 27th, 2011
1:01 pm
“A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism. ” ~ Carl Sagan
Tell that to all the abused children. Utterly Disgraceful. And by the way, Carl Sagan has crossed that barrier that all of us will cross: Death. God gives us the choice to incessantly run our ignorant mouths until then.
Joe Mama
June 27th, 2011
1:01 pm
t — “If God approved of sodomy, he would have made them able
to reproduce by themselves.No third part help.”
Then clearly you god does not approve of the elderly, the barren or the sick, and we should stone them all.
Mel
June 27th, 2011
1:01 pm
Doggone/GA – AGREED. Marriage is a legal issue. Not a religious one.
To “t” – are you kidding? Ignorance is alive and well, I guess.
Granny Godzilla
June 27th, 2011
1:02 pm
t
June 27th, 2011
12:59 pm
If God approved of sodomy, he would have made them able
to reproduce by themselves.No third part help.
Let me just point out that God invented sodomy
He created all our naughty little bits and gave us clever minds to figure out what do to with them.
Thanks God!
getalife
June 27th, 2011
1:03 pm
t thinks God is a homophobe.
saywhat?
June 27th, 2011
1:03 pm
ADAM-”You are downright anti-business, sir! (that is to say, you don’t support the CEO pocketing all the profits. YOU SOCIALIST”
True, a CEO pocketing unneeded extra millions is FAR more important than the economic well being of the average family and the maintainance of stable marriages. It was selfish of me to think otherwise. I am ashamed of my flagrant wealth envy. I thank you for pointing out the error of my ways. Consider me reformed.
Dave R.
June 27th, 2011
1:04 pm
I feel the gates being rattled at the Yerkes Primate Center . . .
Jimmy62
June 27th, 2011
1:05 pm
Doggone: Pretty sure marriage was first created as a religious/spiritual ceremony far in the past, not by bureaucrats trying to codify who gets to pay what level of taxes. Government co-opted it long ago.
Doggone/GA
June 27th, 2011
1:05 pm
“If God approved of sodomy, he would have made them able to reproduce by themselves.No third part help”
If human sex was ONLY for procreation God would have made us have sexual seasons and that would be the ONLY time we could have sex.
Siege
June 27th, 2011
1:05 pm
@ Jimmy62 – “Why is the government recognizing marriage, which is a religious institution?”
Marriage is not a religious institution, it’s a legal one. If it were a religious one, then atheists wouldn’t be able to get married. The only thing that religion brings to a marriage is a large meeting place for everyone to gather and a person in a fancy outfit giving the union the blessing from the diety of the couple’s choice.
Jefferson
June 27th, 2011
1:07 pm
Issues like this should be national, states are like the house of reps, short termers in a pissin’ contest. We need consistant vision, not 50 ways to leave your lover.
saywhat?
June 27th, 2011
1:07 pm
“If God approved of sodomy, he would have made them able to reproduce by themselves.No third part help”
There is a Santorum joke somewhere in this, no?
Aquagirl
June 27th, 2011
1:08 pm
If someone’s trying to hump your wallet, then I think a visit to Wilson’s is in order because you clearly need a new one.
lol…man, my sides hurt.
getalife
June 27th, 2011
1:08 pm
It’s done and more States will do it.
The South will be the last as usual.
Get over it cons.
Doggone/GA
June 27th, 2011
1:08 pm
“Pretty sure marriage was first created as a religious/spiritual ceremony far in the past”
“Pretty sure” isn’t good enough. How about some proof? The earliest know reference to marriage is in the LAWS of Hammurabi
t
June 27th, 2011
1:09 pm
Let me just point out that God invented sodomy
Wrong.
God created Adam and Eve.
Destoyed Sodom and Gommarah.
Will save your soul, if you ask him.
Dave R.
June 27th, 2011
1:10 pm
SCOTUS got two rulings right today.
Makes me feel a lot better as Obamacare moves it’s way upward as well.
Doggone/GA
June 27th, 2011
1:11 pm
“Destoyed Sodom and Gommarah”
Sodom and Gommorah were destroyed because of poor treatment of guests, not because of homosexuality.
josef
June 27th, 2011
1:12 pm
getalife
“The South will be the last as usual.”
I don’t know. Arkansas was one of the first states to repeal its sodomy laws way back in Bill’s first term as governor…I’m not betting or counting on it, but you never know…
Dave R.
June 27th, 2011
1:13 pm
“Destoyed Sodom and Gommarah.”
Hey, t, here’s a clue.
Why have we been spared so long if he took out Sodom and Gommorah? I think we exceeded His threshold long ago, don’t you?
Granny Godzilla
June 27th, 2011
1:15 pm
t
June 27th, 2011
1:09 pm
Let me just point out that God invented sodomy
Wrong.
God created Adam and Eve.
Who did Cain marry?
Destoyed Sodom and Gommarah.
Yep, good job God
Will save your soul, if you ask him.
spoke with him just this morning, everythings okee dokee with us. he did express some concerns about you and asked that I help you see how wrong you are
getalife
June 27th, 2011
1:17 pm
Josef,
Good point.
Electing moderates like Clinton in the South and it could happen.
WOODSTOCK MIKE
June 27th, 2011
1:17 pm
@Granny
Do you believe in God? Don’t libs think religion is a fairy tale??
Dave R.
June 27th, 2011
1:17 pm
“Who did Cain marry?”
I believe Herman’s wife’s name is Gloria.
Left wing management
June 27th, 2011
1:19 pm
Mighty Righty: “Just a thought: Is a species that cannot reproduce a weakness in Darwin’s theory?”
I assume you mean do I think a species that can’t reproduce is doomed to sure extinction according to Darwin.
To which my answer is: being that we don’t accept eugenics as an acceptable moral basis for our social norms, it’s of no consequence what a Darwinian view has to say on the matter. But leaving that aside, it’s neither here nor there. With world population at all time highs, at multiples of historical levels, I think ability to procreate among our lesser challenges at the present time. Or, looked at from a different angle, the question of the survival viability of the human species is going to have far more to do with ecological issues, and other issue like threat of nuclear annihilation, than with falling birth rates, concerning though they may be in advanced Western societies.
Toby
June 27th, 2011
1:20 pm
What a great day, God and gays in the paper, all that’s missing is guns. Well, you can’t always have everything.
josef
June 27th, 2011
1:21 pm
getalife
I agree with you there. Southerners, according to those stats and graphs the Bruin loves so much, are pretty much on the same page with the rest of the country on this issue along with DADT, etc. A little more conservative than some parts, and less so than others…
As far as electing moderates, we can always hope…I don’t see it on the horizon, but then, again, you never know…
Adam
June 27th, 2011
1:22 pm
WOODSTOCK MIKE: Yep, every last lib on the planet thinks religion is a fairy tale. Yep, every last one…
You’re just as much a dis-respecter of religion as the “libs” you claim to be against if you really believe that.
getalife
June 27th, 2011
1:22 pm
Mike,
God is not a partisan hack.
You ask silly questions.
Siege
June 27th, 2011
1:23 pm
t – “Destoyed Sodom and Gommarah.”
So thousands of innocent men, women and children were killed in order to punish a handfull of people behaving “badly”? For an all-knowing, all-powerful diety, this God person acts all-too-frequently like a two-year-old throwing a tantrum. Wouldn’t it have been more productive to have gotten rid of “undesirables” individually? I wouldn’t burn down my entire garden because a few weeds showed up.
josef
June 27th, 2011
1:23 pm
WOODSTOCK
“Do you believe in God? Don’t libs think religion is a fairy tale.”
Some of us are very religious.
Granny Godzilla
June 27th, 2011
1:23 pm
woodstock
I work to follow the teachings and example of the fisherman in all I do….
IMHO, Formal religion does more harm than good.
Joe Mama
June 27th, 2011
1:24 pm
Mike — “Don’t libs think religion is a fairy tale??”
There are plenty of theist libs, though you might have a problem with the religions that some of them practice. Wiccans in particular might really get you exercised.
getalife
June 27th, 2011
1:25 pm
Josef,
Yes moderate is a dirty word to cons but on equal rights, is the South the last States to implement equal rights?
jewcowboy
June 27th, 2011
1:25 pm
saywhat?,
“There is a Santorum joke somewhere in this, no?”
A frothy mix for America!
Doggone/GA
June 27th, 2011
1:27 pm
“Do you believe in God? Don’t libs think religion is a fairy tale.”
Why do you care? It’s not really any of your business
jewcowboy
June 27th, 2011
1:29 pm
“Sodom and Gommorah were destroyed because of poor treatment of guests, not because of homosexuality.”
Or by seismic and volcanic activity…
josef
June 27th, 2011
1:30 pm
getalife
equal rights for whom? Pioneers in women’s rights, Jewish (and other non Christians) equal rights, equal rights for Catholics, like I say, you never know…
Doggone/GA
June 27th, 2011
1:31 pm
“Or by seismic and volcanic activity”
You’re stating the HOW, I was only stating the WHY!
TGT
June 27th, 2011
1:32 pm
Yes, nations that have adopted gay marriage have seen traditional marriage suffer. As Harry Jackson notes, “…devaluation of marriage (has occurred) in every nation where same-sex unions have received comparable status to heterosexual marriage. According to the work of Harvard trained Dr. Stanley Kurtz and others, rapid destabilization of the entire institution of marriage has been an unintended consequence of recognizing same-sex marriages.
Dave R.
June 27th, 2011
1:32 pm
“Or by seismic and volcanic activity…”
Or by space monkeys . . .
jewcowboy
June 27th, 2011
1:33 pm
WOODSTOCK MIKE,
“Do you believe in God?”
If you choose to believe in whatever Spéir Faerie you choose, go right ahead…as long as those beliefs do not infringe upon my rights under the US Constitution. Freedom of religion is also freedom from religion, especially when it comes to civil rights.
Doggone/GA
June 27th, 2011
1:33 pm
“Yes, nations that have adopted gay marriage have seen traditional marriage suffer”
Or, as in our case, traditional marriages are suffereing and gay marriage is being recognized.
Hate to tell you this, but it’s a tad difficult to blame an EXISTING problem on a FUTURE event.
Soddom and Gomorrha
June 27th, 2011
1:34 pm
I’ll go with what God says on this one. Its an abomination. And it says it more than once. Nuff said.
Mr Right
June 27th, 2011
1:34 pm
Ever wonder why more and more men and women don’t get married but just live together but then gays seem to think it’s so important to be married.
TGT
June 27th, 2011
1:34 pm
In 2006, Mark Stern, a supporter of gay marriage, noted that “Same-sex marriage would…work a sea change in American law. That change will reverberate across the legal and religious landscape in some ways that are today unpredictable.” According to Peter Steinfels, writing for The New York Times, what Mr. Stern has in mind are “schools, health care centers, social service agencies, summer camps, homeless shelters, nursing homes, orphanages, retreat houses, community centers, athletic programs and private businesses or services that operate by religious standards, like kosher caterers and marriage counselors.”
Also, “Parents in Massachusetts now have no right to know when their children are being taught about homosexuality in grades as low as kindergarten, neither can they opt their kids out (one parent was even jailed overnight for protesting this). Businesses are now forced to give benefits to same-sex couples regardless of any moral or religious objection the business owner may have. The government also ordered Catholic Charities to give children to homosexuals wanting to adopt. As a result, Catholic Charities closed their adoption agency rather than submit to an immoral order. Unfortunately, children are again the victims of the morality that comes with same-sex marriage.”
josef
June 27th, 2011
1:35 pm
DAVE
Space monkey’s? So that’s where she’s gone…have you told Yerkes?
And wonder if mine and getalife’s exchange is close enough for a new thread yet?
Doggone/GA
June 27th, 2011
1:35 pm
“but then gays seem to think it’s so important to be married.”
Not all gays do, though. I know several gay couples that are adamantly opposed to gay marriage.
jewcowboy
June 27th, 2011
1:37 pm
Doggone/GA,
“You’re stating the HOW, I was only stating the WHY!”
Ok…here is the why…the two plates at the East African rim were stretching apart creating a thinning of the Earth’s crust. The release of pressure due to the thinning of the crust lead to adiabatic expansion, and the partial melting of the mantle causing volcanism thus destroying Sodom and Gommorah.
NIght Train
June 27th, 2011
1:37 pm
AmVet wrote “And no matter the semantics, that comparison is repulsive. Two are criminal activities and I believe that you’re just pissed that the third isn’t. Or am I wrong? Do you favor homosexuality being made illegal?”
If I’m not mistaken, homosexuality was a criminal act a number of years ago. Now it is accepted by most everyone and by our laws. The point has been made that ‘people are born that way’ so it is alright.
How many years will it take the pedophile movement to convince America that ‘they are born that way’ so the laws preventing their actions are discriminating against them and it too becomes accepted behavior?
Doggone/GA
June 27th, 2011
1:38 pm
“Ok…here is the why”
Nope, that’s still the how!
getalife
June 27th, 2011
1:38 pm
Josef,
“equal rights for whom?”
Women and AA’s.
Dave R.
June 27th, 2011
1:38 pm
josef, bring up the Late Misunderstanding and MAJOR historians, and a new thread is virtually guaranteed!
Kamchak
June 27th, 2011
1:38 pm
Dr. Stanley Kurtz:
His 2010 book Radical-in-Chief claims that President Barack Obama is a socialist.
That’s all I needed to know.
Doggone/GA
June 27th, 2011
1:39 pm
“How many years will it take the pedophile movement to convince America that ‘they are born that way’ so the laws preventing their actions are discriminating against them and it too becomes accepted behavior?”
Never gonna happen. You can rest easy. Pedophelia is a crime because there is an innocent victim. Homosexualtiy is not a crime, because there is no victim.
josef
June 27th, 2011
1:39 pm
jewcowboy
Wrong. How pertains to the sciences. Why pertains to the humanities. How=process, Why=opinions. Ask my fifth graders!
jewcowboy
June 27th, 2011
1:40 pm
Dave R.,
“Or by space monkeys . . ”
Or the Earth hit by a random space cow…and it just wiped them right off the map
Dave R.
June 27th, 2011
1:41 pm
“How many years will it take the pedophile movement to convince America that ‘they are born that way’ so the laws preventing their actions are discriminating against them and it too becomes accepted behavior?”
Night Train, once again, pay attention.
Homosexuality is a private matter between two consenting adults, and has nothing to do with being born that way. Pedophilia is the preying of adults on unwilling children.
Surely you can see the difference between the two?
Joe Mama
June 27th, 2011
1:41 pm
TGT — For all this research, Dr. Kurtz fails to demonstrate causation, falling instead prey to an ideologically convenient logical Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc fallacy.
Dr. Kurtz links the two, but utterly fails to demonstrate anything more than correlation.
Dave R.
June 27th, 2011
1:42 pm
I don’t know, jewcowboy.
Space monkeys are EVIL.
Uncle Jed
June 27th, 2011
1:43 pm
Just popped back in between appointments. Stop beating the horse and hoeing the same row. May I respectfully remind you: It’s The Economy, Stupid!
Mrs. Obama’s South Africa Trip Cost Taxpayers Over $500,000
by Keith Koffler on June 27, 2011, 1:01 pm
First Lady Michelle Obama’s trip to South Africa and Botswana last week cost taxpayers well over half a million dollars, possibly in the range of $700,000 or $800,000, according to an analysis by White House Dossier.
Many of the trip’s expenses cannot be obtained with specificity, including the cost of local transportation for the first lady, Secret Service protection, the care and feeding of staffers, and pre-trip advance work done by administration officials in South Africa.
But it is possible to estimate some of these costs and put a price tag on one of the major expenses – her transportation to and from southern Africa and her trips between cities there.
While the goals of her journey – “youth leadership, education, health and wellness” in southern Africa, according to the White House – are laudable, many may question whether such an expensive outreach overseas by the president’s wife is worthwhile given the threat of the ballooning federal debt to the economy….
http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2011/06/27/michelles-south-africa-trip-cost-taxpayers-500000/
Doggone/GA
June 27th, 2011
1:43 pm
“but utterly fails to demonstrate anything more than correlation.”
and correlation is not neccessarily causation
Siege
June 27th, 2011
1:43 pm
“How many years will it take the pedophile movement to convince America that ‘they are born that way’ so the laws preventing their actions are discriminating against them and it too becomes accepted behavior?”
Since children are not considered to be consenting adults, this will never be a problem.
jewcowboy
June 27th, 2011
1:43 pm
josef,
“How=process, Why=opinions”
The why and how can be the same thing…Why did a city disappear…Because the earth’s crust thinned allowing magma and molten sulfur to to shoot up and destroy it…How did a city disappear? The Earth’s crust thinned allowing magma and molten sulfur to to shoot up.
Doggone/GA
June 27th, 2011
1:44 pm
“The why and how can be the same thing”
Sure they can be, but when someone is arguing the “God did it” cause – then they aren’t the same.
Dave R.
June 27th, 2011
1:44 pm
“Or the Earth hit by a random space cow…and it just wiped them right off the map”
Resulting in the “udder” destruction of Sodom and Gommorah.
Who needs BADA BING?
Keep Up the Good Fight!
June 27th, 2011
1:44 pm
Night Train, do explain why it is that you dont think that you can draw a very bright line. Btw, tell us all how clear the marriage line is today? Can a woman, say, in her 30’s marry a boy of 14? 15?
jewcowboy
June 27th, 2011
1:46 pm
“How many years will it take the pedophile movement to convince America that ‘they are born that way’ so the laws preventing their actions are discriminating against them and it too becomes accepted behavior?”
How many years will it take the idiots that post this drivel to realize pedophilia is between non consenting parties? Probably the same number of years it takes these jackwads to figure out a dog can’t enter into a legal agreement…
Joe Mama
June 27th, 2011
1:48 pm
Doggone — “when someone is arguing the “God did it” cause”
God ate my homework. If you reject my argument, you are blaspheming against my beliefs. Besides, homework is the invention of the Devil anyway.
Doggone/GA
June 27th, 2011
1:48 pm
“How many years will it take the idiots that post this drivel to realize pedophilia is between non consenting parties?”
What?! And ruin a perfectly good “slippery slope” argument? Surely you jest!
jewcowboy
June 27th, 2011
1:48 pm
Dave R.,
“Space monkeys are EVIL”
No doubt.
“Resulting in the “udder” destruction of Sodom and Gommorah.”
A dad
June 27th, 2011
1:48 pm
Of course homosexuality is not “normal” in the sense that sex as its most basic level is procreation of the species, and last time I checked, 2 females or 2 males cannot reproduce, ergo the biological assumption that homesexuality is not normal.
But the gay marriage issue is being distorted by both sides. Arguing marriage is sacred just doesn’t fly with me anymore. Too much Hollywood, too many divorces, too much simple deterioration in modern attitudes towards marriage, i.e., just another easily disposible act. In all honesty I’m not really for it. But a part of me hesitates at the denial of equal rights to any one group for any reason (and I’m one of those who subscribe to the “born that way” agrument), and I also believe that the extremists on both sides are what’s making this the bruhaha it’s become. For all my religious brethern, right or wrong the final answer on this issue will be when we all stand before God for judgment and it’s not up to us to judge. Will be interesting to see what happens during some of the invitable divorces among gay couples though. Oh well, nothing earth shattering. Just thought I’d toss my two cents in for the day.
josef
June 27th, 2011
1:49 pm
getalife
Women…Roman Law in Louisiana and Texas from the colonial period on and the repeal of the English law of couverture with Fisher v Allen in Mississippi in 1834 recognizing that Chickasaw common law superseded British law, incorporated into the 1839 state consitution, first place in the English speaking world, also in the 1830s Mississippi College the first instition in the country to grant degrees to women equal to men, Mississippi University for Women, first state supported institution of higher learning in the country specifically for women, first woman to serve in the Senate (Georgia), first woman to be elected to the US House of Representatives (Arkansas), first municipality to be run entirely by women (Burnsville, Mississippi) and the list goes on and on…
AA’s now there’s the rub…an otherwise stellar record of progressive behavior blown to hell…
Paulo977
June 27th, 2011
1:49 pm
Doggone
“It’s all those religious people who can’t stay out of someone else’s bedroom that are the problem”
Sure have some hard on problems!!!!
jewcowboy
June 27th, 2011
1:50 pm
Doggone/GA,
“but when someone is arguing the “God did it” cause – then they aren’t the same.”
“Anything you don’t understand, Mr. Rankin, you attribute to God. God for you is where you sweep away all the mysteries of the world, all the challenges to our intelligence. You simply turn your mind off and say God did it. ” ~ Carl Sagan
Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)
June 27th, 2011
1:50 pm
“Homosexuality is a private matter between two consenting adults, and has nothing to do with being born that way.”
It ceases to be a private matter when activists provide young children with information advocating homosexuality or radical homosexuals parade around in public celebrating their lifestyle.
Doggone/GA
June 27th, 2011
1:52 pm
jewcowboy – yes, there are too many people who are EXACTLY like that. I can never get a good answer to the question: why would God give us a questioning mind, and then turn around and say “but you can’t use it”?
Doggone/GA
June 27th, 2011
1:53 pm
“It ceases to be a private matter when activists provide young children with information advocating homosexuality or radical homosexuals parade around in public celebrating their lifestyle”
But you have no problem – are we to take it? With radical HETEROSEXUALS parading aroung in public celebrating THEIR lifestyles?
josef
June 27th, 2011
1:53 pm
jewcowboy,
No, son. To pose the question as “why” is to call for opinion, to pose as “how” is to call for process. To answer the question “why” with a process is incorrect and does not answer the question posed.
viz.
French, pourquoi versus comment; Spanish por que versus como…
And in English we actually have to availability of a mechanism to include them both in the discussion–how come?
Joe Mama
June 27th, 2011
1:54 pm
Recon — “It ceases to be a private matter when activists provide young children with information advocating homosexuality or radical homosexuals parade around in public celebrating their lifestyle.”
Exhibit #1 — adult magazines on the newsstand down at the gas station
Exhibit #2 — wedding ceremonies taking place outdoors in a park
Recon, will you advocate banning these examples of what you were just complaining about, or are you just going to go on being Captain Discrimination?
Granny Godzilla
June 27th, 2011
1:54 pm
Stanley Kurtz?
Oh he’s a radical rightie to be sure…but since gay marriage has only been recognized in the last few years what destabilized marriage before that?
Just thinkin’ about it?
The culprit in this case may be Stanley Kurtz, a regular contributor to the perpetually terrible Weekly Standard, the consistently amusing National Review, and the description-defying Commentary. A few years ago, Kurtz wrote a highly influential essay which set out to refute the work of William N. Eskridge, Jr., the John A. Garver professor of jurisprudence at Yale University, and Darren Spedale, a New York investment banker, who together had recently written a book called Gay Marriage: For Better or For Worse? What We’ve Learned From the Evidence. The authors discussed their preliminary findings in a Wall Street Journal op-ed before their work was more formally published (in fact, Kurtz weirdly dismisses it as “unpublished” several times in his article, as if it were somehow unseemly for a paper to exist between the time it is written and the time it is published).
Denmark, the authors noted, began allowing for gay civil unions in 1989. Ten years later, the heterosexual marriage rate had increased by 10.7 percent. Norway did the same in 1993. Ten years later, the heterosexual marriage rate had increased by 12.7 percent. Sweden followed suite in 1995. Ten years later, the heterosexual marriage rate had increased by 28.7 percent. And these marriages were actually lasting; during the same time frame, the divorce rate dropped by 13.9 percent in Denmark, 6 percent in Norway, and 13.7 percent in Sweden.
Confronted with statistics indicating that marriage in Scandinavia is in fine shape, Kurtz instead proclaimed that “Scandinavian marriage is now so weak that statistics on marriage and divorce no longer mean what they used to.”
He has goal posts on wheels too
Dave R.
June 27th, 2011
1:54 pm
“It ceases to be a private matter when activists provide young children with information advocating homosexuality or radical homosexuals parade around in public celebrating their lifestyle.”
And allowing gay marriage does neither of those things, Recon.
Go back to hiding under your satin sheets, Marine.
suwanee dawg
June 27th, 2011
1:55 pm
Lot of comments about whether homosexuality is normal – The definition of normal is stated as follows: conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural. Ignoring the fact that there is no productive purpose of homosexual behavior (reproduction), the majority of the population is repulsed by homosexual behavior; therefore I think it is fair to say homosexuality is not normal. I am not a “homophobe” and could care less what folks do in their own bedrooms, but like many others have always naturally been disgusted by this behavior. Studies show less than 4% of the population is identified as gay or bisexual. It seems odd to me that we would conform our laws to represent such a small group.
t
June 27th, 2011
1:55 pm
S and G
jewcowboy
June 27th, 2011
1:56 pm
Recon (2nd.and 3rd.),
“It ceases to be a private matter when activists provide young children with information advocating homosexuality or radical homosexuals parade around in public celebrating their lifestyle.”
So does it cease to be a private matter when activists provide young children with information advocating religious tenets out of the mainstream or radical religious zealots parade around in public celebrating their lifestyle?
Dave R.
June 27th, 2011
1:57 pm
suwannee dawg, what part of EQUALITY do you NOT get?
BRW
June 27th, 2011
1:57 pm
A Dad, If two people of the same sex are having sex to procreate, then they have a serious problem and it’s not that they are gay! Again you are summarizing sex as an act to only procreate. Is that the only reason you have sex?
jewcowboy
June 27th, 2011
1:59 pm
suwanee dawg,
“the majority of the population is repulsed by homosexual behavior; therefore I think it is fair to say homosexuality is not normal.”
Please back up this preposterous claim with fact…
“I am not a “homophobe” ”
No…just an anti-gay bigot.
“It seems odd to me that we would conform our laws to represent such a small group.”
Yeah…whoever heard of minority rights in this country…
Kamchak
June 27th, 2011
1:59 pm
I am not a “homophobe” and could care less what folks do in their own bedrooms, but like many others have always naturally been disgusted by this behavior.
If you are disgusted by gay sex, THEN DON’T HAVE IT!
BRW
June 27th, 2011
1:59 pm
suwanee dawg, I am disgusted by people who eat raw fish, so stop that too if you will.