Quote:
Originally Posted by etdpratt
While I understand and appreciate your opinion, I believe that a religious individual has every right to put their religious beliefs first if they are asked to vote on it. If I believe that same sex marriage is against the will of God, I have every right to vote against such a law that permits it.
I am not going to try to keep someone from having a relationship with another individual but if I am asked to vote and say whether I think it is ok or not ok, then I will side with my beliefs. The same goes for other sensitive issues such as pornography, or drugs. If I have a vote to make pornography illegal or make drugs legal, I will be on the side of my beliefs.
I also ask the question to others on the issue of same sex marriage. If you support it, do you also support the practice of polygamy or family members getting married to one another. Do you support all these instances?
I know this post may be viewed negatively, but I do want to open up a dialogue and maybe this isn't the right thread for this discussion.
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Marriage is a legal and social construct. I don't really consider preventing gay people from marrying to be very equitable, but I also see that it's reasonably debatable as a legal topic. That's totally different from actively punishing anyone who happens to be gay for simply being what they are. There is also a huge difference between not allowing gay people to get married and not allowing people to talk about gay people getting married as an even possibly good thing.
There are very important, fundamental differences between a person's right to participation in a legally/socially recognized tradition, a person's right to free speech and a person's right to be what they are. Violation of free speech and violation of a person's right to exist as what they are is what's causing the big hullaballoo over in Russia.