njlauren
Posts: 1577
Joined: 10/1/2011 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Kirata quote:
ORIGINAL: GotSteel Voting against equal rights for homosexuals means you treat the homosexual community badly. For hundreds of years, and from the founding of our country, heterosexuals have called the committed union of a man and a woman a "marriage". I can see no argument against the government recognizing the committed unions of homosexuals, but that is not what the gay community is asking for. Instead, they are telling the heterosexual community, "We want that word to apply to our unions too. If you don't like it, fuck you. Tough shit. Go find another." Some people don't like that attitude, regardless of whether or not they have any aversion to homosexuality, be it religious or otherwise, and even if they support affording homosexual unions equal recognition and rights. And it is a general rule that you will always get more respect by giving some. K. This whole statement is a total load of bullshit, and it is typical of those trying to claim they are not homophobic, when they are. Heterosexuals might have called the committed union of a man and woman marriage, but it doesn't matter, the real issue is that the term marriage became a legal term, that specified rights and benefits on those who are legally married. Once that happened, it was no longer a religious term, and quite frankly it no longer matters one iota whether people think it should be reserved for straights or not, once the law recognized the term, it is no longer sacred, it is no longer special, it is a legal right, much as habeus corpus or the right against self incrimination, and it cannot be denied because some people don't like it being given to others. The reality is those who protest that it is the term marriage know damn well that the legal term marriage is needed to get rights. Did you know, Kirata, that people with civic unions cannot collect the social security benefits of their partner if they die, that if they have a civic union in state, their partner dies, that their blood relatives can go into court in their state, and have the children taken from the only parent they know..which they could not do if they were married? Do you realize that if a couple with a civic union goes on vacation, one of them has an accident, that the partner can be denied access and then have their partners family deciding medical issues, like what treatment and so forth? Did you know that with 401k's that the automatic inheritance of a spouse is not in play, and that a family member could get the 401k as next of kin, even if the deceased left it to their partner (401k inheritance is under ERISA which recognizes only the term marriage)? Did you know that if a company offers health insurance to same sex couples in a state where they cannot marry, but can have a civic union, that they pay taxes on that benefit, whereas to married couples it is tax free? If hetero couples were so worried about the term married being reserved for straights, they would insist the word marriage be taken out of the law completely, leave marriage to the churches, government not recognize marriage, and instead anyone who wants to get the legal rights, gets a civil union, straight or gay. In reality, the reason that straights object to gays using the term marriage is they want gays unions to be second class, if they wanted them to have the same rights, marriage would have no more legal meaning than the rite of communion does legally..but I don't exactly see anyone defending marriage proposing everyone gets a civil union.
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