(May 27, 2011 at 10:26 am)Doubting Thomas Wrote: To have legal marriages, the government can't just get out of the marriage business, but if they could guarantee that gay couples have the same rights as heterosexual couples, then I'm all for it. But I think the only real way to guarantee it is to allow legal gay marriage.Question: Why does marriage have to have some kind of "legal" aspect in the first place? Why can't it simply be a celebration of love? Drop the "legal" aspects of marriage, remove all benefits given to married couples, and the problem solves itself. There is no reason why married couples should have more benefits than unmarried couples in the first place. You could make an argument for supporting "child benefits" when the couple produce or look after a child, but I don't see anything that "married" couples can do that "unmarried" couples cannot. Ergo, if you really want to be fair, you have to have equal rights between married and unmarried couples.
(May 27, 2011 at 10:49 am)Jaysyn Wrote: If the ceremony can't create a legal kinship between to previously unrelated people, then it's just a dog & pony show.It's this kind of attitude towards marriage that really annoys me. You really believe that without some legal aspect, marriage is some kind of show? What happened to marriage being about love? Why can't marriages just be about love and nothing else? Honestly, what's the most important part of the ceremony for you, the kiss or the signing of the register? Marriage has become polluted by government interference; people get married for the wrong reasons, often to scam the state and get more money.
So I ask you, name one valid reason why marriages have to have some kind of "legal" aspect.
