Why is SSM such a big deal?

[Slander and/or Libel]

Because being so cruel to a group of people as to an matter that is one of the most important aspect of our lives, marriage, for reasons that have no reasonable public policy basis as shown by the data, and thus seem based on bigotry or  priori religious beliefs that do not have a independent secular public policy rationale based on the data, is shocking to the conscience. I am just saying what others have said in a different way.

Don't you think there would be some more support on the Right for civil marriage if opponents were not basically compared to Hitler? Or that there was some acknowledgement (such as Fox News' gay conservative Guy Benson) that the vast majority of trad'l marriage supporters are not bigots?

Gay marriage is a relatively new thing in society. Has the country lacked a conscience until 30 years after the bicentennial when SSM was imposed on Massachusetts?

it's very true that this issue has been settled. So what more is there?

Are you saying you'd support SSM if you feel like SSM supporters were just coddling you more?

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Guys

Guys

GUYS

How hard is it to not respond to CountryClassSF? Use the ignore button for christsake.

Are AggregateDemand and CountryClassSF just ranting ridiculous bigotry and pseudo-intellectuallizations to themselves and everyone who's responding to them? I can't see half the thread since I have both of them on ignore.

Yes. CCSF is having gayness shoved down his throat and AD thinks SSM is just a great opportunity to finally let people know about the plight of single straight people.

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Go back ten years and your argument is exactly reversed. Conservatives used SSM to juice electoral turnout. Were you making the same argument then?

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Unfortunately, this is a textbook example of the left using division and hatred as a political tactic.

The only losers to be made out of the SSM debate are Americans who honestly and ardently believe in the sanctity of traditional marriage.  Now, this isn't to say that opponents of gay marriage have good reasons for their opposition - because, quite frankly, they don't.  However, the narrative that opposition to SSM is rooted in hatred and bigotry of homosexuals is just plain wrong: if that were the case, we'd be seeing calls for the criminalization of homosexual activity, et cetera.

Rather, the American left is much more comfortable using gay marriage as an issue to drum-up electoral support among the hopelessly young and mindlessly cosmopolitan for an agenda that actually comes at the expense of the working poor, racial relations and the environment.  Such is the problem when a center-left party tries to build a base by appealing to conservatives.

Hey, remember 2004 when Republicans used calls for the criminialization of homosexual activity as an effort to drum-up electoral support? Good times.

No.  No Republican candidate for federal office was saying that same-sex relations between consenting individuals should be illegal in 2004. 

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I never said that religion "has a right" to infringe on "gay rights". 

I just think its detrimental to public discourse in a society when otherwise good-natured, civil people are made into bigots just because they hold a moral objection to homosexual marriage that is consistent with religious texts and teachings across several centuries, its nothing new-fangled. 

You're still going to have to live with Christians and the Religious Right after SCOTUS strikes-down all statewide-SSM bans this summer, so I would suggest you learn to play nice at least. 

Trying to legally ban SSM =/= having people say things you don't want to hear said about yourself.

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You're lying. You would still oppose SSM on the same grounds you say you do now. You don't say you oppose it because people aren't nice enough to you.

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So you're saying that your position on this issue is materially shaped by your perception of how nice people are to you about it? That if you don't feel properly catered to, you're comfortable with fighting tooth and nail to keep an entire population from enjoying this right?

Super principled, dude.

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But even in those places, heterosexual people will not be accused specifically of throwing their heterosexuality in people's faces. They'll be accused of acting appropriately. LGBT people will get an extra layer of opprobrium for reminding people of their existence.

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If two straight people kiss in Chelsea or the Castro, nobody is going to scream at them or attack them.  That could absolutely happen to two gay people in many, many places around America.

San Francisco bar owner in the Castro demanded straight people stop kissing. http://youtu.be/Cdt-KqccS2Y

Seriously? A local news joint from 18 years ago is the best you can do?