I feel too often people ascribe pro-family ideals to simple religion. While my religion does condemn homosexuality, that is not the basis for my grounds against it. I do not adhere to one religious commandment unless I see an actual effect (and not just some vague post-mortal reward).
I vote against homosexual marriages because I feel it is an unfit place to raise children. Do all children raised in homosexual homes turn out wrong? No, but more often they will, as would single-parent homes (if I had my way, I would find a way to give all single-parent homes the missing father/mother also). It's not because the homosexual partners are necessarily bad people, but there is something missing when either a father or a mother is absent, psychologically speaking.
As for the "bigoted religious" aspect, I theorize most tenets in religion (not all, mind you) do not cause "obscure" moral values, but rather after experience of what works best we discover those methods translated into religion (i.e. traditional marriages came before religion taught traditional marriages, not vice-versa). Looking at some of the other principles generally found in religion (not including off-color cultish beliefs), is honesty wrong? Fidelity? The sanctity of life? Loving your neighbor? Abstaining from harmful substances? Helping your family?
Lastly, I do not hate homosexual people. I recently discovered I had a gay brother. I still treat him the exact same as I did before. And to elaborate more, while I disagree with it, I would allow homosexual, er, relations; I just feel it is hazardous for children to be raised in such a setting.
EDIT: I just noticed the irony in this post. Talk about intolerance condemning intolerance...
Show some proof before making sweeping generalizations.
Being misinformed = being ignorant.
Ignorant comment: "It's not because the homosexual partners are necessarily bad people, but there is something missing when either a father or a mother is absent, psychologically speaking."
The American Psychological Association (APA) among other health organizations "have concluded that there is no scientific evidence that parenting effectiveness is related to parental sexual orientation." So, "psychologically speaking", the above generalization is not factual.
The scientific community has dismissed the claim that gay parents < straight parents. These conservative interest groups have a bias opinion, using traditional values and religious belief influence their research and results.
If you do present a study, please don't use out-dated or skewed research like the family research council.
An example of this was a study conducted by U of Texas, Question: What do the following all have in common?
• A heterosexually married female prostitute who on rare occasion services women
• A long-term gay couple who adopt special-needs children
• A never-married straight male prison inmate who sometimes seeks sexual release with other male inmates
• A woman who comes out of the closet, divorces her husband, and has a same-sex relationship at age 55, after her children are grown
• Ted Haggard, the disgraced evangelical pastor who was caught having drug fueled-trysts with a male prostitute over a period of several years
• A lesbian who conceives via donor insemination and raises several children with her long-term female partner
They are all gay fathers or gay mothers! Really, all of these people would fall under this category together according to the study. This study received a $695,000 grant from the Witherspoon Institute which also donates money to the Family Research Council to skew information to favor a preconceived conclusion.
Anyway, what if the results said that gay parenting was better; would we have to ban heterosexual marriages?
What if we compared black and white parents, 36% of black people are impoverished and only 14% of white people are impoverished in the United States. With this factor, a research center might deem that white parents have a higher success rate than black parents. Regardless of what the results would yield, should comparative studies on parenting by different demographics disqualify certain groups from marrying or having children? Absolutely not, with this mentality we would be cutting the group of people eligible to marry to a select elite.
People with gay relatives that are against gay marriage should be especially ashamed of themselves for condemning their right to marry someone of the same sex with absolutely no reason besides ignorance and misinformation.
