Any Secular Reason Against Gay Marriage?

I was just wondering if anyone has ever came across any good secular arguments against gay marriage. All I ever seem to hear is about how being gay is immoral, and they get that immorality thesis from the Bible so it doesn't really apply.

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Permalink Reply by erik112358 on February 14, 2012 at 3:18am

Firstly, let me preface this by stressing that I in no way advocate this position. But the only non-religion-based argument I know of against gay marriage is that only one male and one female can procreate, therefore any other "union" is unnatural and should not be recognized by the state.

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Permalink Reply by Willson Stoner on February 14, 2012 at 4:23am

Of course this means old people should not be allowed to marry.

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Permalink Reply by matt.clerke on February 14, 2012 at 9:54pm

And people with infertility issues!

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Permalink Reply by erik112358 on February 14, 2012 at 2:06pm

no worries, I completely agree with you.

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Permalink Reply by Nerdy Keith on February 14, 2012 at 6:27am

The only argument I've heard of is the argument from defintion. Flaw with that is, many dictionaries have amended their definition of marriage to actually included same sex marriage and also civil partnerships.

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Permalink Reply by Stefanie on February 14, 2012 at 1:54pm

I believe the only thing defining marriage as being between a man and a woman are religious doctrines. Making any law that respects that as the definition of marriage violates the 1st and 3rd part of the Lemon test, which is what is used to find out of a law satisfies the establishment clause of the first amendment. Basically, they shouldn't have been able to pass the Defense of Marriage Act. I don't know how they did not clearly see that this law provokes religious/government entanglement.

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Permalink Reply by Nerdy Keith on February 14, 2012 at 5:04pm

Totally agree

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Permalink Reply by Unseen on February 14, 2012 at 6:44pm

Most religions have traditionally defined marriage as between man and woman, have they not? Did Buddhism and Islam and Shinto and Christianity all conspire together, or is it more basic and universal than that. I mean, you seem to believe in what amounts to a huge coincidence. It might have a Jungian basis. Just sayin'.

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Permalink Reply by Nerdy Keith on February 17, 2012 at 6:20pm

My guess is that it could be modeled on the Hammurabi Code's definition of marriage.

In any case definitions can be altered to fit the modern era. The definition of homosexual has be amended after it was discovered that it is not a disorder.

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Permalink Reply by Stefanie on February 18, 2012 at 5:11pm

What is typically not brought up during this debate, however, is that while the bible defines marriage as between a man and a woman, throughout the bible there are several acceptable forms of marriage. Some of these are: a man having a wife and concubines, a man, his wife, and her property (which could include slaves), polygamy, a man and his brothers widow, a rapist and his victim (as long as the rapist pays the woman's father for property loss), etc. Christians, however, do not use these as examples when defining marriage.

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Permalink Reply by Dan on February 14, 2012 at 9:23pm

This is one of those issues where I'm torn. It seems to come down to an argument over the definition of a word. If we want to have "marriage" mean the union between a man and a women, then that's what it means. Of course, it doesn't mean that we wouldn't (and shouldn't) grant ALL the legal benefits to same sex union couples.

But then again, we could simply change the meaning of the word (and digress the conversation into a matter of prescriptive vs descriptive linguistics... )

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Permalink Reply by Tristan on February 18, 2012 at 4:17pm

Australia has equal rights for marriages and same sex unions. Seperate, but equal. Unfortunatley, this is not an acceptable tenent for a democracy. By granting same rights to both forms of union then legally it would seem we are off the hook? No, a marriage is a marriage and having a seperate union for lgbt community implies they are not deserving of marriage and should be down right offensive to any equality loving human being.