keith, with this comment, exposes the truth of the matter. in fact, conservative’s opposition to same sex marriage is born out of insecurity … insecurity in the collective conscience of conservative’s own failed marriages.

Glenden,

You’re right, and Keith Olbermann is right…it’s about the heart.

Here’s why.

And here’s why.

It’s about the heart of a child. No one, in all of your discussion here, has ever asked or even been concerned how free-for-all abortion and no-fault divorce have affected the hearts of children. I’ll answer it for you–not well at all.

And now you want to introduce another experiment upon children (because that’s what abortion and no-fault divorce have been and “homosexual marriage” will be) without even caring how it might affect the children.

Putting children into a brand new petri dish. How heartless.

Becky,

What the “fetch”! You’ve gone to the Cliff Lyon School of Mind Readers!! Trust me, your diploma is worthless.

Heterosexual DIVORCES have been devastating to children. Please…I know you’re angry, because you think you have me all figured out. But you don’t. Open up your mind instead of running what I said through a narrow filter. I dare you to (1) read the articles I linked to above, and (2) then see if you still think that I think that heterosexual marriages have been devastating to children.

Becky – The social stigma against homosexuality is bigoted. My point is that, when that stigma is transferred to marriage, bigoted people may not view marriage in such a prestigious light anymore. And let’s face it, there are a lot of bigots in this country.

Did racists think less of marriage after interracial marriage became legal? If so, then I think same-sex marriage will have a similar effect on public perception.

I imagine that if same-sex marriage becomes federal law, people will lobby for a reduction in the legal benefits in marriage. People who hate gays are really going to hate their tax money going to support gay marriages.

Becky – I was trying to explain how same-sex marriage weakens opposite-sex marriage. I know people will still want to get married. I just think that the social and legal power of that marriage is likely to be diminished.

I don’t mean to say that people will lose interest in getting married. I mean to say that they may be less willing to grant special social and legal privileges to married people if same-sex marriage becomes law. For example, a homophobic employer who is pressured to grant health benefits to gay partners may simply say “Fine, if you want equality, then I’m not going to pay for health benefits for anyone’s partner, gay or otherwise.”

Tax money would be going to support gay marriage via the ability to file taxes jointly. For most married couples, they pay less in taxes than they would if they were single and cohabiting. Also, there are social security survivor’s benefits, veteran’s benefits, and other things like that, wherein the government gives money to people’s spouses.

If both partners in a marriage work and have similar incomes, particularly high incomes, there is still a marriage penalty. They pay more than they would if they were single. For families like my own, in which I work and my wife doesn’t, there are substantial tax savings in being married filing jointly.

I’d also like to put in a plug for Marv’s comment which Becky linked to. It’s well worth reading.

No, I understood it. His main point is that the gay marriage movement’s goal is to have society respect a same-sex relationship in the same way they do a marriage, and he went on to support that idea.

I disagree with that goal, but I think he articulated it well.