Forum Overview :: Rants :: Re: Defense of Marriage

[quote name="Lufteufel"][quote name="I need clarification"]Out here in California in 2000, voters passed an act called the Defense of Marriage Proposition. While this sounds like an innocuous enough act, it actually was an attempt to cofidy the illegality of same-sex marriages. Rather than come out and say that fags shouldn't marry because GAY IS BAD ACCORDING TO TEH BIBLE, the authors of the proposition framed the argument in terms of heterosexual marriage. If fags are allowed to be legally married, it will lessen the meaning of straight marriage, the reasoning went. The bill on face value is laughable (is marriage an institution that really needs defending? And how would gay marriage do harm to such an institution that has already withstood the continuous assaults of divorce, infidelity, bigamy, and of course spousal abuse?), but given more recent events, I wonder if it could be cited as a reason for prosecution of the major television networks. After the "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?" fiasco (speaking of spousal abuse), Fox Television swore they wouldn't tread such hallowed grounds again. Of course, that was before the ratings came in. Now we have the Bachelor, the Bachelorette, Joe Millionaire, Meet the Parents, and Fox's latest assault, <a href="http://www.fox.com/mba/">"Married by America."</a> If marriage of any type (straight, gay, or inter-species) ever needed defending, it's in need of it now, and not from teh gays. What does marriage mean anymore if it's roughly equivalent to winning the showcase thingy on The Price is Right? Don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan of marriage. I could care less why someone gets married, or how entertaining it is to millions of Americans. But I do think fags deserve to be just as miserable as straights, and should be allowed the same tax benefits and inheritance rights as breeders. Maybe the best way to get rid of the anti-gay marriage laws already EXTANT is to use them to attack the major networks and their unending assault on marriage. Let's call bigotry and religious intolerance what it is, and may God have mercy on us all. Amen.[/quote] The nonsense about the Bible is just spin to woo the fundy vote. To the government, marriage is a financial institution, and gay marriage merely represents a tax loophole. The government underwrites marriage through tax breaks because married heteros are far more likely to produce children who will grow up to become productive workers. A steady stream of new workers ensures downward pressure on wages and provides badly needed funding for the ailing retirement system. But the governement has no incentive to extend these tax breaks to married gays, because gays who marry aren't necessarily any more likely to start viable families than unmarried heteros.[/quote]