Should gays be allowed to legally marry?

[laoislad]

Would there not be a fair chance a child brought up by a gay couple, would eventually turn gay in the future too. They might be good parents for the kid, but that sort of enviroment would hardly be great for their own sexuality in future years.

care to explain why being brought up by a gay couple wouldn't be great for a child's sexuality? do enlighten us.

Huh? It's fairly self explanatory. Two kids being brought up by the same sex, could eventually turn gay. Its just my opinion amigo

Enlighten us with some stats.

we'll get to the stats bit later.

so, are you saying that eventually turning gay, as you described it, would hardly be great? i'm just trying to figure out you're position here on being gay y'know. in your opinion, is it bad to be gay?

Well i know if i was a kid being brought same sex up I wouldn't like it. I have no idea if it will make them gay or not. Its not bad to be gay people can be what they want.

What a ridiculous thing to say.
You state it as fact that you wouldn't like it, how do you know?
If you knew nothing else only to have two same sex parents then I'd be pretty sure if they were good parents you'd love them the same way you love the parents you did get.

[nrico2006]

Has marriage not always been defined as being the union of a man and a woman?  Surely certain traditions are sacred and should not be changed.  If two men or two women want to be together why not create come kind of ceremony (civil partnership not enough?) that allows them to recongise their union?  Marriage is not the avenue to pursue unfortunately, and irrelevant of their sexual orientation all people have been brought up to understand marriage as being between a man and a woman, and that is who the marriage ceremony has been created to cater for. 

[Tubberman]

Has marriage not always been defined as being the union of a man and a woman?  Surely certain traditions are sacred and should not be changed.  If two men or two women want to be together why not create come kind of ceremony (civil partnership not enough?) that allows them to recongise their union?  Marriage is not the avenue to pursue unfortunately, and irrelevant of their sexual orientation all people have been brought up to understand marriage as being between a man and a woman, and that is who the marriage ceremony has been created to cater for. 

That's if you view marriage as the sole preserve of the Church. You can have a civil marriage you know.
I doubt many gay couples would want to get married in a church given the way it views them. 

[johnneycool]

Would there not be a fair chance a child brought up by a gay couple, would eventually turn gay in the future too. They might be good parents for the kid, but that sort of enviroment would hardly be great for their own sexuality in future years.

care to explain why being brought up by a gay couple wouldn't be great for a child's sexuality? do enlighten us.

I'd hazard a guess and say that most gays today were brought up by a heterosexual couple.

Most Heterosexuals would probably prefer that their offspring were heterosexual also, but it just doesn't always work out as you planned.

[cadence]

A gay couple I know, one half of which is from the street next to mine and played Gaelic (a tiny bit) when he was younger (just putting his background in context) has adopted a little boy. I can honestly say I believe this little guy will be loved as much as any other child and will have a life much better than the one he came from.

good on them. it's not rocket science is it! 

[Main Street]

Has marriage not always been defined as being the union of a man and a woman?  Surely certain traditions are sacred and should not be changed.  If two men or two women want to be together why not create come kind of ceremony (civil partnership not enough?) that allows them to recongise their union?  Marriage is not the avenue to pursue unfortunately, and irrelevant of their sexual orientation all people have been brought up to understand marriage as being between a man and a woman, and that is who the marriage ceremony has been created to cater for.

How about we have a law saying Travellers can have a civil partnership with the same rights as a civil marriage but no rights to have a civil marriage?
Would you say that was not right? Probably, as the law would be imposing a social stigma upon one group in a society.
The law as it stood in the UK, imposed a social stigma against gays in a civil partnership who regarded themselves just as married as their next door neighbours who were in a male female partnership.

I don't see what the big deal is apart from fear/bigotry/conservatism/religious and other assorted dogmas.
The religious marriage ceremony is the reserve of that particular church and so it should be.

[AQMP]

Interesting side issue on the "West Lothian Question".  This legislation affects England and Wales only.   Why should Mark Durkan and Jim Shannon be voting on this at all??  Maybe Ritchie and Big Al got it right.

[Jonah]

Fair enough the church have their own rules and should not be expected to change.
I thought though the question was 'should gays be allowed to legally marry'
So we are not talking about a religion here.

In my mind of course they should be,I can't see any reason why not.
As regards children,I would say there are plenty of kids who would be far better off with two loving same sex parents rather than some of the filth that are sorry excuses for parents.

[rodney trotter]

Would there not be a fair chance a child brought up by a gay couple, would eventually turn gay in the future too. They might be good parents for the kid, but that sort of enviroment would hardly be great for their own sexuality in future years.

care to explain why being brought up by a gay couple wouldn't be great for a child's sexuality? do enlighten us.

Huh? It's fairly self explanatory. Two kids being brought up by the same sex, could eventually turn gay. Its just my opinion amigo

Enlighten us with some stats.

we'll get to the stats bit later.

so, are you saying that eventually turning gay, as you described it, would hardly be great? i'm just trying to figure out you're position here on being gay y'know. in your opinion, is it bad to be gay?

Well i know if i was a kid being brought same sex up I wouldn't like it. I have no idea if it will make them gay or not. Its not bad to be gay people can be what they want.

What a ridiculous thing to say.
You state it as fact that you wouldn't like it, how do you know?
If you knew nothing else only to have two same sex parents then I'd be pretty sure if they were good parents you'd love them the same way you love the parents you did get.

Why, it's my opinion. If I was put up for adoption as a kid and it was between a gay couple and a straight couple,I think I would benefit more from being brought up with a straight couple. Gay couple could be great parents but an overall outlook on life I think a straight couple up bringing would be best.

[J70]

A close family friend (who actually did a wonderful job officiating myself and my wife's wedding) recently married his boyfriend here in the US. Perhaps one of you geniuses could explain to me why he shouldn't be entitled to marry the love of HIS life, just like I and most of you have?

WHERE is the harm in it?

Some people need to open their eyes to their bigotry.

[EC Unique]

A debate that would be more relevent to me personally would be ''should gays be allowed to marry in a church or chapel?''

Standing beside each other in a town hall or whatever telling each other that they love each other and signing a piece of paper to me is not really a marriage so tear away.

[Jonah]

A debate that would be more relevent to me personally would be ''should gays be allowed to marry in a church or chapel?''

Standing beside each other in a town hall or whatever telling each other that they love each other and signing a piece of paper to me is not really a marriage so tear away.

So I assume you voted Yes in the above poll then?

[BennyCake]

A close family friend (who actually did a wonderful job officiating myself and my wife's wedding) recently married his boyfriend here in the US. Perhaps one of you geniuses could explain to me why he shouldn't be entitled to marry the love of HIS life, just like I and most of you have?

WHERE is the harm in it?

Some people need to open their eyes to their bigotry.

Just because people think gays shouldn't be allowed to "marry", that is not being a bigot. Nor is it being anti-gay or homophobic. But that's what people think as soon as you say you disagree with gay "marriage".

[EC Unique]

A debate that would be more relevent to me personally would be ''should gays be allowed to marry in a church or chapel?''

Standing beside each other in a town hall or whatever telling each other that they love each other and signing a piece of paper to me is not really a marriage so tear away.

So I assume you voted Yes in the above poll then?

I have not voted.

I would have a fear that once the right to legally marry has been sorted the next step would be, for some gay couples, to force their way to marrage at the alter. That would be a massive NO for me.

[Declan]

Presuming so that "gay" lifestyle is the same then as well as an heterosexual lifestyle in all aspects e.g, wild younger years, drinking, drug taking, promiscuity, followed by  settling down and then pre-nuptial agreemnents, succession rights , equal division of properties, child custody battles, separate bedrooms, not talking for 10 years for the sake of the kids/family/neighbours but still share the same property and all the wonderful things that heterosexual couple do to get through life?  Then the empty nest syndrome where you suddenly realise your pushing 60 and have feck all in common with this person with whom you've shared the majority of your adult life.

What's not to aspire to in that