Why gay marriage is wrong to SO many.

[MacShreach]

OK, I'm going to be in the minority here.

Superficially this is a simple topic - but in reality it's far from simple.

The easy answer:
All consenting adults should be allowed to marry, irrespective of sexual orientation.
So does this mean that a brother can marry his sister....or his brother...or his mother?

I personally have no issue with that; there may be issues with possible genetic problems occurring where close relatives reproduce in repeated generations, but in fact there is very little actual evidence to support this and the evidence that comes from small island populations, where people are necessarily very closely related, suggests that this has been much overstated, probably to support the existing taboo.

When two people commit to each other and live together they should be allowed to marry
So what about a 40 year-old guy marrying a 13 year-old girl?

This is a matter of the legal age of majority; some countries still have this set such that a marriage like that would be quite legal, and in fact, such marriages are common. Throughout most of Europe the age of majority is 16 or younger; I don't have any issue at all with a women of 16 marrying a man of 40; in fact I know several cases where this has actually happened.

The reality is that we set parameters around what the community determines is acceptable. These parameters vary, depending on tradition, religion and social acceptance (e.g. polygamy accepted in some societies but not in others).

It's this final category - social acceptance - that we're currently debating, so let's focus on that and avoid sweeping generalisations that don't work.

I suspect that gap couples are no more stable or unstable, blissfully happy or messed-up, that heterosexual relationships. Certainly I have absolutely no problem with personal commitments, of the type envisaged by 'civil union', but 'marriage' is one step too far, at least for me.

Raising kids is perhaps the greatest responsibility of adults. Welfare agencies work hard to assess the suitability of families to adopt or foster kids. If gay couples are able to marry then they would demand equal opportunity to adopt or foster kids, and I have to ask - "Is this the IDEAL family environment for raising kids"?

Good--you say you want to avoid sweeping generalisations, and then you make one. Interesting tactic.

Speaking as a confirmed and successful breeder myself, I accept what you are saying about the importance of children's home environment; however I fundamentally disagree that the ability to have or raise children should be a condition on whether or not people may be permitted to marry. Many hetero couples are childless. There is more to marriage than this, and to deny this to gay couples is a flagrant disregard of their human right.

It's not that I'm a tub-thumper for marriage; we could just abolish it completely. It's the discrimination I'm against.

[russtafa]

if 2 adults want to get married its nobodys business but theirs

[bob69]

Marriage= two consenting non blood related adults committing to be together in sickness as in health (etc). Really doesn't seem that complicated to me. If they are straight/gay/white/blue/pink/goth/catholic/atheists should not make ANY difference. Many straight couples should not be having children, just like many gay couples should be allowed to adopt. Reproduction and life span should not factor into it. Besides we are talking about being married legally not religiously. The law should be equal for everyone. Religious marriage is an entirely different matter since each religion has its own traditions and their beliefs can be safely ignored by non members. The law on the other hand can't be ignored if you don't like it.