Homosexuality and Marriage
I have been talking to many people around the world, and have had to comment on this so many times that I am going to write about it here... That way I can just refer people to it instead.Recently I received an e-mail from a friend, for about 8 years, in Australia. He was ranting, as I love to hear him do, about American politics and about President George W. Bush's re-election. He feels one of the reasons he was re-elected was the push on banning gay marriages. Being admittedly bi-sexual, and once engaged to a woman, I feel that I must comment on this.
Marriage, as I have stated many times before, is a religious idea. Therefore, as many religions states that homosexuality is not acceptable, there can be no homosexual marriage. Many religions see "marriage" as a union where a couple comes as one to be closer not only to God, but to multiply. Homosexuals cannot by nature have children.
The problems that homosexuals have with "marriage" is not based on religious standards, but on the legal aspect. The want the rights and privileges that we give heterosexuals. If this is what they want they are not asking for us to accept a religious concept or acceptance. They are for something that deals with legality.
The legality of "marriage" is the toughest pill to swallow for most people. The concept of what marriage is is usually defined by the persons married, according to what their morals dictate about it. What is acceptable and not acceptable applies in that case. Marriage according to a few websites that I visited is defined as follows:
Quick definitions (Marriage)
noun: the act of marrying; the nuptial ceremony (Example: "Their marriage was conducted in the chapel")
noun: two people who are married to each other (Example: "His second marriage was happier than the first")
noun: the state of being a married couple voluntarily joined for life (or until divorce) (Example: "A long and happy marriage")
noun: a close and intimate union (Example: "The marriage of music and dance")
Encyclopedia article
Marriage is a relationship that plays a key role in the definition of many families. Precise definitions vary historically and between and within cultures, but it has been an important concept as a socially sanctioned bond between people who (usually) are not close blood relations.
Check out this site for a well written encyclopedia marriage definition
(exert from MSN Encanta)
noun
1. legal relationship between spouses: a legally recognized relationship, established by a civil or religious ceremony, between two people who intend to live together as sexual and domestic partners
2. particular marriage relationship: a married relationship between two particular people, or an individuals relationship with an individual spouse
3. joining in wedlock: the joining together in wedlock of two people
4. marriage ceremony: the ceremony in which two people are joined together formally in wedlock
5. union of two things: a close union, blend, or mixture of two things Civilization is based on the marriage of tradition and innovation.
Legaly though the following definitions apply:
marriage
noun
the joining of a male and female in matrimony by a person qualified by law to perform the ceremony (a minister, priest, judge, justice of the peace or some similar official), after having obtained a valid marriage license (which requires a blood test for venereal disease in about a third of the states and a waiting period from one to five days in several). The standard age for marriage without parental consent is 18 except for Georgia and Wyoming where it is 16, Rhode Island where women can marry at 16, and Mississippi in which it is 17 for boys and 15 for girls. More than half the states allow marriages at lesser ages with parental consent, going as low as 14 for both sexes in Alabama, Texas and Utah. Marriages in which the age requirements are not met can be annulled. Fourteen states recognize so-called "common law marriages" which establish a legal marriage for people who have lived together by agreement as husband and wife for a lengthy period of time without legal formalities.
common-law marriage
noun
an agreement between a man and woman to live together as husband and wife without any legal formalities, followed and/or preceded by cohabitation on a regular basis (usually for seven years). Common-law marriage is legal in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and Utah, thereby recognizing a marriage for purposes of giving the other party the rights of a spouse, including inheritance or employee benefits. Such informal partnerships are recognized by some local governments for purposes of the rights of a spouse under employment contracts and pension rights even where the state does not recognize this as a marriage.
See also: cohabitation
legal marriage has nothing to do truthfully with what morals and religion. As stated in the common-law marriage above, it is an informal partnership. This what the homosexuals are asking for. The rights of inheritance, benefits (as in life & health insurance), property issues, and such. What they are asking for is NOT religious. In fact the way that marriage is treated these days, I do not believe that we should call "legal marriage" marriage at all. Why not just call it an "informal partnership agreement?"
Marriage is one of the most beautiful and holy unions that you may ever enter into. I stress the word HOLY! It is a bond handed down through generations, called by different names, with the same purpose. It is an outward reflection of an inner desire to be closer to and one with whom you call God. If this is not so, the why is it tradition to go to a holy man (priest, pastor, shaman, rabbi, high priest/priestess, etc) to perform it? It is a mockery to marry homosexuals, because in all the religions I have ever heard of marriage is between males & female (and homosexuality is not allowed).
If you, a homosexual, want a legal informal partnership then by all means have it, but don't call it marriage. Marriage is not a legal institution, but rather religious one. As I very well know, many homosexuals come from a religious family background. They dream like hetros about beautiful ceremonies where they are with the person the love more than life. However when you shun what your religion states about sexuality, then you must give up those dreams. You can have partnership under law, but it is not marriage. Marriage according to the bible has a main purpose of reproduction. Like it or not that is the truth. Your ideas will have to change about trying to change a very very old religious custom. If you want a battle you can fight, then fight for the "Legal Informal Partnership" (LIP). Leave marriage alone.
Even as my own friend, a 22 year old gay male, who had a beautiful dream of getting married at his families pre-civil war farm, has stated to me...he will never marry. Not because he won't be in love with the guy, but it goes against his Baptist beliefs. It would hurt his family, whom he loves dearly. He may find the love of is life in some man and spend the rest of his life with him, but he will not go against his religious beliefs in what marriage is. For him the legal idea of marriage is not what marriage means to him.
So finally I state, homosexuals should NEVER be allowed to "marry." It is a slap in the face to a strict long-held religious belief. In truth many homosexuals I have talked to do not want anything to do with the religious part of marriage, so why call it such? If you want the right and resposiblities of the informal partnership then have at it. Leave "marriage" to us religious freaks that hold it in a reverence that you ignore. However do not think that I mean that straights are much better when it comes to marriage, if this was the case then 1/2 marriages would not end in divorce. The legal form of "marriage" needs a major overhaul. Maybe it should be harder to get married, or harder to get divorced, take your pick. But as a legal issue on who may "marry" is has nothing do with religious ideas. However if we allowed anyone gay or straight to "marry," then we should not call it by it's religious name, and title it want it is...legal partnership. Don't try to bring God into something that has nothing to do with Him.
posted by Kodokuna Kitsune @ 3:20 AM
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