Thoughts on Gay Marriage

[bedstuy]

Let the Churches decide.

What on earth does this mean?  We're not talking about church canon, we're talking about state law. 

Could people also stop saying that not recognizing marriages at all would be a good compromise?

[bedstuy]

Polygamy is a whole different ball game to gay marriage, though. Polygamous societies are predominantly polygynous, so it degrades women and locks many men outside of relationships. Obviously piles of sexually dissatisfied men is bad news for society (don't laugh I'm serious), so I'm suspicious of promoting polygamy.

Given the way gay marriage has been promoted for the past 10+ years, I doubt people will consider those arguments valid. If I were to make an anti gay marriage post on Atlas or Facebook, one of the first replies would be something like "but they love each other, they should be able to get married".

A culture that bases its acceptance of gay marriage on "marriage=love" will have to accept polygamy too. Granted, there will still be inertia but it wouldn't be that surprising if our kids' or grandkids' generation feels the same way about polygamy that millennials do about gay marriage.

Regardless of the validity of the arguments pro or con, I doubt that's true. 

Homosexuality is an orientation.  Almost every gay person comes from a heterosexual family.  Every society has gay people.  But, polygamy is more societal way of structuring relationships. 

There's also the fact that there has been a large gay community in the United States for a number of years.  Gay people are a respected part of society.  Not so with polygamists, who are mostly in fringe religious cults.  Even in the most open, liberal communities, there isn't a thriving polygamist community the way there was a gay community even 50 years ago.  So, it's not really a perfect analogy. 

[bedstuy]

Yeah, come on guys. 

Two people with two incomes who share expenses have more money than single people with one income and no sharing of expenses.  So, therefore, we can't let gay people get married or we'll all get lupus.

[bedstuy]

I'm for legalising it, albeit significantly less enthusiastically than I was when I first joined the forum. I am mildly disappointed that gays want to sell out by endorsing a concept like marriage, and irritated that it's literally the only issue that anyone seems to care about despite it being such a minor little thing that affects very few people.

This exactly.

Because discrimination is okay, as long as the group getting discriminated against is small.

Two points:

Gay marriage affects all gay people whether they choose to get married or not.  It's a matter of having the full compliment of civil rights.

Gay marriage is not hurting the progressive agenda.  What great program would have been passed if not for the prominence of gay marriage?  This isn't a zero sum game, we're not only able to advance one issue at a time.  If anything, gay marriage is helping the entire progressive agenda.  Gay marriage serves as a wedge issue, isolating Republicans into a niche party catering to fundamentalists and old people.  Once Republicans start to waiver on gay marriage it might also become a source of intra-party strife.  If we can splinter the religious right from Republicans and alienate an entire generation from Republicans with gay marriage, it will be worth any annoyance you feel now.