Gay Marriage - are you for or against it and why?

[Violet]

I support same-sex marriage because one of our inalienable rights is 'pursuit of happiness'.

This Silicoid Empress would suggest to you that she can easily alienate your 'right' to pursue happiness. She can make your life a real living hell, and yet you'll still live, and likely still be a productive member of Silicoid society... albeit one of those in a special zone on the heavily polluted terran worlds.

Either that, or I am sure my scientists would love to run some tests on you humans. I make no guarantee that you will survive these tests, and infact I highly doubt that you will either enjoy them, or live through them.

The government can only infringe that right if there is a compelling state interest.

A government can "infringe" (upon) any "rights" that it bloody wants to, for whatever petty reason that might be. Now... it wouldn't be wise to bother with it if there isn't a 'compelling state interest', but what one can and cannot do is not based in what is and is not wise.

The only compelling interest the government has in marriage is that it is a contract, and the government has to be able to resolve contractual disputes.

*Presents corndog36 with a gun, sword, and pointy stick*

That's how I will solve your contract if you come to me with it. I never made this contract: you did. And I really don't give half of my left ankle about the contract you made: if you stick such an unwanted thing in front of me when I have real work to do, I will likely have it casually set on fire. I also do not see reason to waste the resources of the state on a 'we intend to only have sex with each other' contract you made with another person... while business needs enough regulation to keep it from being damaging to the state either directly or indirectly: your 'marriage' to another person (or your cat) is entirely irrelevant to the function of state: it is a choice a state makes as to whether it will care about your 'contract' with each other or not.

The alternative would be pistols at 20 paces.

As you are walking away, I will shoot you. Probably twice.

The government's interest is the same regardless of the gender of the people entering into the contract.

Not necessarily true. If a government can make a choice that it cares about penguins, then it can make a choice that it only cares about the penguins that are white with black spots. Black with white spots don't also have to be recognized.

Whether it is called Marriage or something else it has to be the same for everyone, the government can't discriminate. (Well, it is not supposed to anyway.)

It can. It should. It hopefully will continue to do so for the whole of its existence.

Discriminating along lines that have no tangible gain is something that I wouldn't espouse, however: government is not required to not discriminate along such lines, and is also not obligated to do so.

And not discriminating is foolish. We thrive on discrimination. This tree is not empty space, therefore I will not walk into it as I would empty space. All trees are like this: not something I would deliberately walk into.

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It's still a month before april first, isn't it?