7 Qutns for Christians About the Gay Marriage Debate - RELEVANT

Contents:

• GAY MARRIAGE DEBATE
• 2006 CLIP OF JOE BIN’S OPPOSN TO GAY MARRIAGE SURFAC
• THE TOP 10 ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE: ALL RECEIVE FAILG GRAS!
• THE TOP SIX ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE (AND WHY THEY ALL FAIL)
• KIDS' VOIC KEY ON BOTH SIS OF GAY-MARRIAGE DEBATE
• 7 QUTNS FOR CHRISTIANS ABOUT THE GAY MARRIAGE DEBATE

GAY MARRIAGE DEBATE

Many Senate Democrats said they, too, oppose gay marriage, but they also opposed wrg such a ban to the Constutn, which would require a two-thirds vote of Congrs and ratifitn by three-quarters of the stat. The fai and iends of lbian and gay upl who are nied marriage rights may also experience negative physil and mental health nsequenc siar to those experienced by their loved on.

The vast majory of scientific studi that have directly pared lbian and gay parents wh heterosexual parents have nsistently shown that the same-sex upl are as f and pable parents as heterosexual upl, and that their children are jt as psychologilly healthy and well adjted.

2006 CLIP OF JOE BIN’S OPPOSN TO GAY MARRIAGE SURFAC

Supporters of same-sex marriage ntend that gay and lbian upl should be treated no differently than their heterosexual unterparts and that they should be able to marry like anyone else. They pot out, for stance, that homosexual upl who have been together for years often fd themselv whout the basic rights and privileg that are currently enjoyed by heterosexual upl who legally marry — om the sharg of health and pensn benefs to hospal visatn rights.

Allowg gay and lbian upl to wed, they argue, will radilly refe marriage and further weaken at a time when the stutn is already ep trouble due to high divorce rat and the signifint number of out-of-wedlock births.

Moreover, they predict, givg gay upl the right to marry will ultimately lead to grantg people polygamo and other nontradnal relatnships the right to marry as well. The Catholic Church and evangelil Christian groups have played a leadg role public opposn to gay marriage, while male Prottant church and other relig groups wrtle wh whether to orda gay clergy and perform same-sex marriage ceremoni.

THE TOP 10 ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE: ALL RECEIVE FAILG GRAS!

Ined, the ordatn and marriage of gay persons has been a growg wedge between the socially liberal and nservative wgs of the Epispal and Prbyterian church, leadg some nservative ngregatns and even whole dc to break away om their natnal church. Acrdg to an Augt 2007 survey by the Pew Fom on Relign & Public Life and the Pew Rearch Center for the People & the Prs, 55% of Amerins oppose gay marriage, wh 36% favorg . A majory of black Prottants (64%) and Lato Catholics (52%)3 also oppose gay marriage, as do plurali of whe, non-Hispanic Catholics (49%) and whe male Prottants (47%).

However, a 2006 Pew survey found that sizable majori of whe male Prottants (66%), Catholics (63%) and those whout a relig affiliatn (78%) favor allowg homosexual upl to enter to civil unns that grant most of the legal rights of marriage whout the tle.

Gay Amerins have been llg for the right to marry, or at least to create more formalized relatnships, sce the 1960s, but same-sex marriage has only emerged as a natnal issue the last 15 years. The spark that started the bate me om Hawaii 1993 when the state’s Supreme Court led that an existg law banng same-sex marriage would be unnstutnal unls the state ernment uld show that had a pellg reason for discrimatg agast gay and lbian upl.

THE TOP SIX ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE (AND WHY THEY ALL FAIL)

Even though this cisn did not immediately lead to the legalizatn of gay marriage the state (the se was sent back to a lower urt for further nsiratn), did spark a natnwi backlash. Although the bate over gay marriage for a while seemed to fa om the public eye, the issue was sudnly and dramatilly tapulted back to the headl November 2003 when the hight state urt Massachetts led that the state’s nstutn guaranteed gay and lbian upl the right to marry. To beg wh, all the marriage licens issued to gay upl outsi of Massachetts were later nullified sce none of the mayors and other officials volved had the thory to grant marriage licens to same-sex upl.

Gay-marriage opponents had better luck at the state level, where voters 13 stat passed referenda 2004 amendg their nstutns to prohib same-sex marriage.

KIDS' VOIC KEY ON BOTH SIS OF GAY-MARRIAGE DEBATE

Oh, which 2004 was holdg a referendum on a nstutnal ban on gay marriage, was the state that ultimately gave Print Bh the electoral vot he need to beat Sen.

Ined, the last two years, a number of top urts more socially liberal stat –New York, Washgton state and Maryland — have rejected arguments favor of gay unns. Meanwhile, opponents are lookg to the November 2008 electn, seekg to have nstutnal gay-marriage bans placed on the ballot as many as 10 stat, cludg Arizona and Indiana.

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Democratic printial hopefuls strsed their mon ground wh the gay and lbian muny a televised fom, but one signifint exceptn loomed -- same-sex marriage. Watch how Democrats nsir the gay muny a key nstuency » Wh varyg gre of succs, the ont-nng ndidat the Democratic field tried to rencile their opposn to openg up marriage to gay and lbian upl wh their stated beliefs gay and lbian equaly. While jt 3 percent of voters the 2006 electn intified themselv as gay or lbian, the muny has outsized fluence, particularly among Democrats, bee is polilly active and a source of mpaign ntributns.

7 QUTNS FOR CHRISTIANS ABOUT THE GAY MARRIAGE DEBATE

One area where the Democratic ndidat were clear agreement wh gay rights advot was on the qutn of endg the don't-ask-don't-tell policy, which allows gay men and lbians to serve the ary only if they do not publicly disclose their sexual orientatn. Um, so to get started today, gay rights and LGBT rights more broadly have nsistently been headle news for a long time now, particularly the Uned Stat. We'll look to the difference and the signifince of popular media and shapg attus, and how the study of LGBT history has changed the centraly of gay marriage as a fg issue and urban gentrifitn.

So I thk maybe the last 20 years, we uld argue that there's sort of an crease , pecially maybe the last 10-15 years, reprentatns of sort of very normal gay relatnships on televisn.

And so I was wonrg what you guys thk about how like on one hand, you've got this seemgly nservative reprentatn of gay upl, right, as parents, as married, as monogamo, alongsi the equently, like micians or performers who have the kds of over the top kd of queer personas that are that are really the oppose of that kd of image. But then of urse, that movie was predomantly about the sufferg of the heteronormative fay as they alt wh the fact that their son was posive, right, and what that meant and the sort of way that that eventually brgs them all back together and is the suturg healg for the homophobia that has rift. That was about AIDS as a ncern for the Amerin public more than was actually about lived experience of people who were HIV posive, but then you get somethg like As Is, which was a much ls well-known gay muny play that was very much about two men wrtlg wh one of them lovers, wh one of their posive diagnosis and that there that really didn't get much play at all.