Do we need one?

I think not. Why should anyone care if a same sex couple wants to make the same committment to each other that a heterosexual couple does?

Beware of the religious right.

With me not being fully grown up yet, I am yet to fully (for want of a MUCH better word) approve of gay relationships. If I may say so without sounding prejudiced and obnoxious, the thought of it and what they get up to disgusts me to no end. But that doesn't mean I don't like gay people; I actually haven't met anybody who is gay (not that I know of anyway).

This ban seems a bit silly to me. It seems (at least on the news here) that Bush is trying to win a re-election by doing all the wrong things--like trying to fight fire with gasoline. For the world to apparently be moving forward and America to be the place of freedom and whatnot, why do this? I must admit though, I had a bit of a giggle at the gay choir wading side to side and singing "Going to the Chapel and we're..."

Mick

Very well put, Mick.

Some people say that gay marriage "disrespects the sanctity of marriage".

What about divorce? That doesn't? To me, divorce disrespects the sanctity of marriage more than two people of the same sex committing their love to each other and spending their lives in a monogamous relationship.

Hypocrites.

I think this is overlooked by others not from the US. Sure we have freedom and "whatnot," but we still have laws & rules that govern us, so we are not TOTALLY free. We still can and cannot do somethings, but I guess we're more "free" than other countries, such as Iraq.

As for what the Don said, I totally agree with him. I am TOTALLY against divorce & it disgusts me. I hope to be married one day & I think the problem that some, not all, do is that they decide to get married, knowing that they can always get divored. Personally I don't feel there is enough religion in the world. I am very religious & I'm not saying everyone should be Catholic like me, but I am against divorce & gay marriages. That's just my own personal opinion, and I'm not saying anybody elses is wrong!

I completely agree with this.

Thank you for the backup Don Vercetti!

I don't think we "totally" agree.

I am not "TOTALLY" against divorce, and, I am not at all against gay marriage.

I never said I was against divorce, although I think it happens WAY too much. Sometimes it's necessary, and that's fine. After a while people may not get along. Life is too short to live through a bad relationship for the rest of your life, so do what you have to do. (I won't go further into it here; that's a different topic really)

I just find it funny (and hypocritical) that divorce doesn't bother these closed-minded people at all, but gay marriage does. That makes no sense to me.

Ok, I misunderstood you Don, sorry. I agree with you on this too, as I feel that divorce can be necessary only in extreme cases. I feel that a man & women should get divorced only if one has cheater on the other or something like that. This whole, well we just don't get along anymore is for the birds. I LOVE my mother to death but we don't always get along. But that doesn't mean I'm going to disown her or anything. I also agree with you Don that there are A LOT of hypocrites who claim to be Christians, which also makes me sick because it gives the rest of us a bad name!

OK I'm going to sound so naive here but ....if you (the US) are going to ban same sex marriages that means they can marry now right. Well, who marries them? Surely not a priest or church thing?? Sorry I can't get my head round this lol.

FH

I echo what you have said...

Why cant people in love stay together in matrimony jsut cause their gay?

The way I understand it (I may be wrong), but it's not technically legal, but some local jurisdictions and states claimed it treated gays as second-class citizens so are marrying couples anyway. Some people (including the president) are against this, and want to add an amendment to our Constitution (the document that "secures the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity") banning it altogether.

As for who marries them, I don't think there have been religous church weddings (I may be wrong), but surely anyone can be married in a chapel or elsewhere by a minister (anyone can be a "minister" ) or a justice of the peace, etc.

I'm not "in favor" of same sex marriage. I'm simply not against it.

I don't care what other people do, as long as it doesn't infringe on my rights. And I will never understand why anyone else wouldn't feel the same way.

Anyone who wants to be against same sex marriage is fine with me, even though I can't understand their reasons.

But I didn't intend this thread to be a debate about whether or not we should allow it. My question is

"Do we need a constitutional amendment to prevent it?"

Shouldn't this be something that the individual states decide for themselves?

Isn't Bush trying to make a political issue out of something that in the grand scheme of things is relatively unimportant?

Isn't he pandering to the extreme conservatives and the religious right?

I get ya J Geoff.Thanks for the explanation.

FH

"Do we need a constitutional amendment to prevent it?"

No.

Shouldn't this be something that the individual states decide for themselves?

It really shouldn't be anyone else's decision besides the two people wanting to be married. What the hell business is it of the president's -- or the governors' or mayors' -- that two people want to join in matrimony?

Isn't Bush trying to make a political issue out of something that in the grand scheme of things is relatively unimportant?

Yes.

Isn't he pandering to the extreme conservatives and the religious right?

Yes. And I really don't know how that is supposed to help him. He should be leaning a little to the left if he wants to be re-elected, I think.

I think we need to ban some. If 2 men or 2 women want to get married, so be it. I just can't stand when 2 men turn into women or when 2 women turn into men. That disgusts me. -Pat

Nicely put!

I´d not belive that a marriage between people of the same sex has something bad, if they not bother our private life, i don´t care what they do, is not the normal thing, i guess, but what is normal is these times, is relative, so i´d not have nothing against or something in favor,is not my business i guess.

If they get an amendement passed to ban gay marriage, then why stop there? Why not ban other religions, ban free speech, ban freedom of the press, bring back Prohibition, ban abortion and all that shit? I have a bad feeling about this. America is really pulling a Rome.

I'm going out on a limb here BUT I believe marriage is meant for men to marry women and women marry men. The thought of someone being gay and lesbian just disgusts me. It is a sin and I feel what God says goes. I'm sorry if I'm making you guys mad at me but that is how I feel. I hope you don't have bad feelings against me or kick me off the board. Mignon

Don´t worry mignon, all we have diferents opinions about this and have to respect all

Amen, but it wont go THAT far...

You think? Hell, if Bush can pull this off, then anything goes. He could even pull a Hitler before the elections.

See, that's one of the problems here.

You may think it won't go that far, but you don't really know.

It's a slippery slope once you start sliding down...

Aren't there some states in America that permits an animal to marry its owner?

Anyway, I'm against marriage full stop.

Mig, you're not on a limb. You're solidly affixed to the tree trunk. I heard on the radio last night that 65% of Americans are opposed to gay marriages and that number has even increased over the last 6 months. Speaking from the Catholic point of view, the marriage or union of two people of the same sex is not condoned in the Bible. There are several references to this. It is also viewed as against natural law. Now you can get into semantics and legalities about "marriage", but for many Judeo-Christian followers same sex marriage should not occur.

I understand, of course, that the Bible does not condone same sex unions. I wouldn't expect otherwise.

But again, do we need a constitutional amendment to prohibit something that IMO should be a choice made by consenting individuals?

And perish the thought that we need a constitutional amendment to prohibit something just because the Bible says it's wrong. Separation of church and state and all that.

How about a constitutional amendment prohibiting adultery?

Remember, we're on a slippery slope here...

Let's ban same sex marriage
Let's ban same sex relations
Let's ban sexual relations between two consenting adults who aren't married
Let's ban sexual relations between members of different races

I Believe that 65% of all Americans are against same sex marriages. Big deal. I bet deep down in their hearts, 65% of Americans (or close) would be against Whites marrying Blacks.

And I'll say it again: Is this such a big important issue that we need to amend the Constitution over it?

I am not a fan of gays, but I see no reason that the government should ban their right to marry. It is very, very, Un-American!

America is the land of the free, where everyone has the right to practice anything within the scope of the law. Seeing that being gay is perfectly legal, and should always be, considering the government has no right to decide what is moral and what is not, they then have no right to make gay marriage illegal.

Add to that the fact that marriage licenses are a power that is not granted to the federal government by our Consitution, and I see no reason why this is even an issue. Granted, theya re attempting to bypass thislast issue by making it an amendment, but I do not see any reason to change our Consitution based on the idea that gay marriage is "unnatural".

First of all, as stated earlier, the government has no right to control our moral decisions. And if they tried to amend the constitution to change that, America would crumble. That would turn our lovely democratic republic into a totalitarian government, in which the could control everything we do. This amendment would lead us down a slippery slope to the destruction of everything that this great country stands for.

Remeber folks, this is all coming from a hateful bigot who has time and time again bashed gaywads unashamedly. This is not a moral issue, as Bush is trying to portray. It is a political and governmental issue that seeks to undermine the principles that our Founding Fathers established. If this freedom is taken away from the homos, what is to stop the government from taking away more freedoms from us. Hell, the Patriot Act already stripped us of many freedoms that we once took for granted. I'm telling you folks, this is a dangerous slippery slope!

I'm surprised and pleased with your response, HH. Especially the slippery slope part.

You old gay basher, you.

We the people would rebel against our goverment should it go too far... But maybe we'd take it up the ass... Just like they want us too...