--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], Doug Pensinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Julia wrote: > > > I think he's arguing it on a courts vs. legislatures standpoint. > > > > Looking *just* at how court rulings went and how legislation was > > written, which is it paralleling better at present? > > > > I know. My point is that unlike the anti-choice crowd, the homophobic > crowd will dissipate over the years. Especially as same sex marriage is > unlikely, IMO, to have any negative affect whatsoever whereas abortion has > the effect of terminating what some people consider a human life. > > I have a few questions that I wonder if anyone here has the answers to. > What is the substantive difference between marriage and civil union? If > they are for all intents and purposes synonymous other than the > same/opposite sex angle, will the effect of an amendment prohibiting same > sex marriage be that it in fact outlaws civil unions as well because they > _are_ synonymous. > > If you do outlaw same sex marriage but allow same sex civil unions, what > keeps people from calling a civil union a marriage? Are we going to have > marriage police arresting people for using improper terminology? > > Here's the way I see it. It is not illegal to love someone that is the > same sex as yourself and it does no harm to society to do so. Quite to > the contrary, I would think that the more solid, loving relationships a > society has, the better. If it is not illegal then withholding a benefit > for one that you bestow on another _is_ illegal. Equal protection. If > we amend the constitution to outlaw same sex marriages, we will be > codifying bigotry (again.) > > I think it's probably true that it is beneficial for a child to have both > male and female roll models, but I'd like to see the empirical evidence > that proves that children raised by same sex parents have more problems > than children in traditional relationships before making a judgment one > way or the other. It's my guess that because the number of unwanted > children in same sex relationships is likely to be next to nil, that on > average, they will fare _better_ not worse than children in traditional > relationships. > > Basically, I think that the more stable, loving relationships there are, > the better, and that whether you call them civil unions or marriages makes > no difference. > > -- > Doug
Just out of curoiosity Doug, what opinion do you hold on marriages envolving more than one person? _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
