Not sure how accurate this poll is, but I believe voters opinions are changing and support is moving toward same sex relationships.
In this world if you say anything against Gay Marriage your called bigot, etc. etc. etc. I have nothing against gay people and I have nothing against a long term relationship equal to marriage rights and responsibilities. I do however have a problem forcing Gay lifestyle on top of marriage. Marriage has been around for thousands of years. Is always defined legally as one man, one women. Has some historical and religious meaning and some civil meanings. If Gay marriage becomes available the first thing the Gay community is going to have to do is change the rules of marriage to fit the same sex lifestyle. Some of the expected changes are:
In this world if you say anything against Gay Marriage your called bigot, etc. etc. etc. I have nothing against gay people and I have nothing against a long term relationship equal to marriage rights and responsibilities. I do however have a problem forcing Gay lifestyle on top of marriage. Marriage has been around for thousands of years. Is always defined legally as one man, one women. Has some historical and religious meaning and some civil meanings. If Gay marriage becomes available the first thing the Gay community is going to have to do is change the rules of marriage to fit the same sex lifestyle. Some of the expected changes are:
- In a same sex marriage does it make sense that one spouse is responsible for all the spending by another spouse? Or in a same sex context is it better that each spouse is responsible for his/her own finances. This will probably be changed for same sex marriages.
- In a same sex marriage, how does one define the primary care giver (for children) and how is the primary bread winner defined. These roles need to be defined for most legal divorce and custody laws. It will be different than traditional marriage. This will probably be changed for same sex marriages.
- In a same sex marriage who pays alimony and who doesn't. Up front roles in the marriage usually define the primary bread winner and primary care giver. Who plays those roles in a same sex marriage? This will probably be changed for same sex marriages.
- Marriage is a religious, historical, and civil name and institution for building traditional families. Does a same sex long term relationship really need to be called marriage or can they call it something else, whatever they want. Some religious people are upset because the definition of marriage will be changed for ever. Their upset because it is a "sanctified" word and has special meaning in their religion. The opposition disagrees because there should be separation between church and state. Their objections to keeping marriage definition is a selfish one. The word marriage was first used in religion, thousands of years ago, and then it was adopted by civil institutions as the definition of the traditional marriage for building families. Nothing has changed it still does that.
- Want an example of how a changing a definition could impact a word and society. If you ask someone in the 1950's what "gay" meant they would tell you something like light hearted and joyful. The definition today is etched in stone as it means homosexual in all cases. So a word is removed from common usage. A similar situation could happen with marriage. I would like to be able to use the term marriage as a long term heterosexual relationship. If it includes same sex then you can no longer say I am married without explicitly saying to the opposite sex. Keep definition of marriage the same, and create new equal in rights same sex long term relationship term. Anything they want except marriage.
- The gay community must start being a little more flexible and cooperative. Previously they have drawn a line in the sand and said I ain't moving. What if the majority of Americans agreed in a new long term same sex relationship with term and rules equal and customized for the same sex, and we all leave marriage as it currently is? Both sides compromise? That is a win-win compromise, but some gays adamantly want to redefine the word marriage for their personal reasons of opposition to religion. Would the new term for a relationship be acceptable to the gay community and we won't trample on someone's religious freedoms. We are all sorry that the word marriage has been around for thousands of years unchanged, but the heterosexual community is just asking that the word marriage be left alone. A same sex relationship whether you want to accept it or not is different for a straight relationship . The rules are not the same, as people play different roles in different relationships. If the gay community picks its own relationship name then the gay community has the power to change it whenever they want without any resistance or involvement from the straight community. They can customize how they want. Otherwise they might see constant resistance and opposition to changes as same sex relationships evolve.
