I have no problem with gay marriage. As I've said before, marriage is only a game.
Ernie, please stay single if you truly think marriage is a game. Marriage is the hardest decision, as a free woman, I've ever faced. It's a true labor of love because I've never worked so hard in my life and I'm a homemaker that hasn't worked outside of the home since 9/13/01! So, in other words, a single person only has themselves to be responsible to and for. The budget is easy, the living conditions are simple and you don't have to worry that what you're fixing for dinner is going to be eaten and liked or become target practice.
Marriage is the hardest decision, as a free woman, I've ever faced.
You got married to the state... not each other. You agree to a set of predafined rules as set up by the state... not each other... You recieve benefits from the state for doing this, not from each other...
You and your husband are the ones who decided to commit, not the state, you and your husband can or did bring children into the world, not the state, you and your husband own your life, not the state.
Real marriage is in the heart, not in the home.
This is why I agree, marriage is a game played by powerful forces, and we are the pawns.
If I ever marry, I will take my loved one to a quiet place in the forrest with a bottle of wine, tell her my feelings and intentions, if she agrees we will make sweet lurve, and the state will never... ever... know of my heart.
I can see where Ernie is coming from but the 'game' analogy doesn't really work. I'd go with the analogy of a 'stage' (The sort where people put on plays not the Mario-your-princess-is-in-another-castle type stage). If a loving couple want to be together and want a way in which to declare their love, to show those around them that they are dedicated whole-heartedly to one another then the marriage stage is one way of doing this - why shouldn't a devoted couple be able to do this? Does gender really matter compared to love?
I don't see why people can't be together without getting married. The marriage part doesn't really do anything except limit your life, which I don't understand why anyone would ever want to go out of their way to do. Marriage is only an idea; it isn't a physical thing. So now the government is choosing who can have ideas together and who can't?
I don't see why either but of course the monetary benefits are obvious for people who get married in terms of 'what happens if I die?' - and I guess marriage and the limiting your life thing is to show your commitment - in some bizarre way.
As far as I know, most people who get married for the benefits are illegal aliens that are paying an american citizen to marry them.
No way. Everyone gets married for the benefits it bestows. In the uk a married couple gets to pay less for certain things like tax etc... If you are, however, just a partner you actually get penalised. I know lots of couples who move in togeather and say they are just room mates to avoid this.
