Should Marriage for Same Sex Couples be Legal?

I believe in same-sex marriage.

I believe same-sex marriages should be legal. I believe that the arguments against it are poor and are based on personal beliefs rather than logic.

1) Denying gays and lesbians the right to marry is unconstitutional. It discriminated on the basis of sex. It also denies them of the many benefits of civil marriage such as: to call out of work to take care of a sick partner or partner's child, to receive social security continuation after a partner dies, file joint tax returns, etc. If two people are in a committed, monogamous relationship they should be able to get married and fulfill their promises to each other.

2) Some say that they are against gay marriage because the definition of marriage is "an institution between one man and one woman." But WHO says what marriage is to be defined by? Their argument basically stops there because there is nothing else to add to it. It is word manipulation because definitions are never set in stone. They develop over the years as does language in general. Other words are given multiple meanings and connotations yet we seem to be stuck with just ONE for marriage. Tradition seems to be the only thing that keeps this definition from changing and in the past tradition has lost. Just look at slavery and the treatment of women.

3) "Marriage is for reproduction." What about infertile couples? A post menopausal mother or a impotent father cannot reproduce. Are they not allowed to marry? Actually, they are. So how is this a valid argument?

4) Same-sex couples do not provide the best environment to raise children in. But heterosexual couples ALWAYS do? What about the rapists, child molesters, murderers, alcoholics, and other harmful personalities are free to marry and procreate and raise children all they want. Yes, there are organizations that help children in those situations but do they get to all of them? And isn't the child already affected negatively from the experience? Gay couples can raise children just as well as straight couples can. The difference is that gay couples are looked down on and that can affect the children and it does. If homosexuals were treated equally then what differences would there be? And would they -really- be significant and worthy of being mentioned in an argument?

5) Same-sex relationships are immoral. Says who? Give me valid, unbiased sources and I will acknowledge it and actually have an argument. I will not argue over faith based arguments or personal beliefs.

6) Same-sex marriages threaten the institution of marriage. This to be sounds contradictory. By allowing gays to marry we eliminate marriages that some of them would enter with people they do not love and are not fully attracted to. Gay marriages do not threaten the institution of marriage. If anything they simply strengthen it. Divorce, if anything, is what threatens it.

7) Same-sex marriages are untested social experiments. This is a very narrow-minded argument because it implies that nowhere in the world have there been same sex marriages, while also degrading the relationships of same-sex couples. Calling someone's relationship and love "an experiment" is less of an argument than a personal attack. And same-sex marriages have been "tested" and successful in countries such as: Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, etc. It doesn't seem to pose a problem there so why would it in America?

To me these arguments are all excuses for the real reasons people oppose gay marriage. The reason I say this is because in each argument there is a flaw or contradictions. It is easy for people to dismiss something they find repulsive, unnatural, or that makes them uncomfortable, but that doesn't make it okay to deny a group of people the right to be married.