Define Marriage

[abentwookie]

Rebecarox, I cannot say that personally I care all that much. The depravity, promiscuity,  and over-sexualization of Western culture have already done their damage, unwed mothers, high abortion rates, custody battles, etc.. I choose to ignore it and go on with my life. And yet, on an intellectual level I cannot ignore the likelihood that alternative forms of marriage will have negative cultural effects. Many of those will eventually affect me and the people I care about. Anyone that is concerned about crime, equal opportunity, income disparity, and social stability should seriously reflect on such changes.

For example, I had a friend that was raised in a commune. None of the children were certain about who their real parents were. When the adults gave favor to some children over others for no apparent reason, the children got very confused. While not inevitable, these kids grew up with lots of issues. Few people would deny that today’s high divorce rates and serial monogamy negatively affect the children. Why would Western democracies want to create even more problems for themselves?

Robvalue, unfortunately the concerns raised by the 'slippery slope' argument have already started. I know of at lease one case about the constitutionality of plural marriage bans has started making its way through the courts.

What negative effects and how did you determine the probability of such a thing? Did you know that same-sex marriage has been legal in several countries for a while now? Countries like Canada, Sweden, Norway, Spain, the Netherlands, and many others. Where are all of these negative effects? Society as we know has not come to a halt in any of those countries and there aren't any roving bands of cannibals or people marrying their dogs, as some would have you believe. The is the same type of fear-mongering we have seen mostly from religious fundamentalists in the past. We saw it when the Suffragists were fighting for the vote. We saw it when black people were fighting for civil rights. Anytime an oppressed group fights to gain the same rights as everyone else, you will always see this type of argument used against them.