I was talking to a couple that had been together for 12 years. They said that because there is common law in Canada, they don't want to marry, because that is something that heterosexuals do. I also work with a woman who is married to a woman.
However, I understand why gay people are sometimes reluctant to marry. Someone will claim that gay relationships are all about sex and that gay people are promiscuous. Then, when gay people want to get married (showing that they aren't promiscuous, nor is it simply about sex), they say that gay marriage is a sham, because it isn't between a man and a woman. There are those that expect a gay couple to get married as a straight couple would, to normalize the gay couple.
My understanding of marriage is that it is a commitment of two adults who are in love with each other, support each other in good times and bad, honor and cherish each other, love and respect each other, encourage each other, listen to one another, and sometimes sacrifice their own wishes and desires for the other person.
When I hear "Marriage is only between a man and a woman", that, to me, sounds like marriage is only about sex. When someone claims that only heterosexuals can have children, then it seems to only be about procreation. It's a very simplistic way of looking at marriage.
A friend of mine said that he didn't think that it should be allowed in the States because he thought that gay people would get divorced, this, coming from a man who was divorced himself, and a divorce rate of 50%. With that kind of thinking, why not outlaw all marriage?
Heterosexual weddings are a whole other thing. People spend thousands of dollars on the one day, people say that it is the "bride's day", when it isn't - it is the couple's day. More often than not, the wedding becomes about the pageantry, and not about the union at all.
I question if heterosexuals really have the right to tell homosexuals whether they can or can't marry, when they themselves seem to be undermining marriage with their own divorces. The ridiculous and simplistic reasons against it will only show the hardness of hearts when people look back on this time, the same way that people look back on pictures of Whites Only drinking fountains, or signs that read, "No Blacks, No Jews, No Dogs"
As for me, I will make my own decisions. When half say that you need to get married to be normal like them, and the other half is saying that even if you are married, it isn't really a marriage, they don't really offer any choice but to stop listening to the diatribes of fools who don't know what they are talking about.
