Anyone Out There Who Can Explain the Gay Marriage Thing?

The abortion debate, I can understand. Gun control controversy: I get it. But arguing against gay marriage? No, I don't get that one at all.
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

Is there anyone out there who can explain to me why gay marriage is a problem?

There are issues which are contentious in this country that I have a definite side on. Abortion, for example. I understand where the other side is coming from, I understand where the argument is, I just don't agree with the pro-lifers. There are other issues where I'm more confused, mostly because I understand both sides of the issue. Gun control, for example, is an issue that has flipped back and forth in my head so much over the years, it gives me a headache just thinking about it. I get it, you know? On the one hand, they kill people, on the other hand, I believe the founders of our country recognized that this new government they were creating would be fallible and would have the ability to become tyrannical, and they believed that if that happened, the people had the right to change that government. Part of the reason for the second amendment is so that all the guns aren't in the hands of the military, and to be frank, though I think that point of view is a little crazy and I think we're further away from it being a necessity than we've been since Gingrich decided to try and impeach Clinton due to a BJ, it's something I can hold on to for that side of the debate. It's something that makes it clearer to me. But Gay Marriage? No. I don't get that one at all.

Since, apparently, about fifty percent of the country disagrees with me on this one, I was hoping that a couple of them could actually try and explain a rational reason to me why gay men and women shouldn't be allowed to get married. What I don't get about it is that well... my fellow straight people, it's got nothing to do with us. Except of course it might help out the noun issue when talking to our gay friends of more advanced age. You know what I mean. When you're hanging out with your gay friend who's in his mid thirties, and you want to ask about Tom, that guy he's been with for a decade, the noun's a pain in the ass. Partner? What is it, are they in business together? Boyfriend? They're in their mid thirties, the term doesn't fit. Manfriend? That's the stupidest damn phrase you can make. You know what term would make it easier? Husband. Of course, until they were married, you couldn't use that one, but once they were? Husband. Clear pronoun, everyone knows what it means, would make the linguistics of our daily life that little bit easier.

So here's what I'm looking for in an argument against gay marriage. First off? Clarity. I don't want to have to read through your argument fourteen times to start to see what it means. As a side note - punctuation and vowels are what make written language work. Please try and make sure that they're there. Secondly? Logic. I don't want an emotional argument. Civil rights are not about what you like and what you don't like. We live in a representative democracy that's supposed to be built on the equality of all citizens, regardless of creed, race, or orientation. If the country actually is founded on the family, how exactly will it hurt the country to legally recognize a few more families? Third, I want a real argument. Don't pull shit out of your ass and tell me I can digest it again. Don't tell me that gay people make bad parents, because that's a) never been shown to be true, b) in my own anecdotal experience (not really useful data, but you should know my own bias) been shown to be false. And if it's all about "a kid needs a male and a female parent" than we should just outlaw single parent households now. As soon as one parent dies, the kids are thrown into an orphanage, to protect them from not having a mommy or a daddy.

So what have you got? Economics? I should mention here that weddings are a multi-BILLION dollar industry in this country, and that I have no doubt that making gay marriage legal would throw tons of additional money into that system. Devaluing straight marriage? Why? How is it that two people saying "I love you and I want to be with you forever" effects your marriage in any way, shape, or form? I just want to know if there's anything in your arguments outside of just being uncomfortable with gay people.

Really, I'm not trying to be facetious in this article. I don't get it. Really. I don't get it at all, and I want someone to explain it to me, because I don't like not understanding things. Realize that we're not talking about religion here, we're talking about civil rights. If your church/synagogue/mosque decides to not allow gay weddings, well that's a private issue, not a public one. They can do that anyway with straight people. They probably won't, but they can, because they're private institutions and not bound by the same restrictions as legal ones.

Please. Someone out there, just explain it to me. I don't like not understanding you. What's the argument against gay marriage?

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot