If two guys marry, what do I care?

[John Smith]

I confess that I don't get everything. These days I'm quite confused as to how much effort the GOP is putting into making lives of people not born "straight" through hell.

Given that the state issues the marriage license, the certificate, and the next of kin benefits, and, if it doesn't work out it is the state that grants the divorce, marriage is clearly a legal contract.

I cannot imagine what if feels like to be born a girl, or a boy, but feel you are in the wrong body. The fact that I can't imagine it doesn't mean it doesn't happen, and I can imagine it being its own kind of hell to live with.

All that said, this country, as a country, has many far more important issues to concern itself with, so why is so much time and energy being spent in this area?

If someone is born of one gender, but sees more happiness in changing genders, how am I impacted? If two men, or two women, marry each other, why is it my concern?

Even if these things bothered me, they'd be low on my list.

[Jim Bow]

Re: If two guys marry, what do I care?

There seems to be a mindset that goes, "If I don't understand it, it's automatically wrong, or evil."

[SaltyD from BC]

Re: If two guys marry, what do I care?

I think its fear, probably sometimes brought on by conflicting thoughts about sexuality that the haters won't take on that are within them and they've brushed it off all their life. How ever you slice it its hypocricy more than anything where the far right sells them selves as lovers of freedom and that government nor anyone else has the right to tell them how to live.

Full disclosure its been a learning process to me as a teenager in the 70s I was taught and surrounded by homophobia. The best thing that happened to aid my understanding is have family and good friends turn out to be gay, they being women but its the same deal across the board. Live and let live.

[AndyG]

Re: If two guys marry, what do I care?

I think it boils down to laziness.

People want an easy life. They don't want stress. They want to wander through their days without being faced with questions. Especially difficult questions. Questions relating to the nature of society "as it is taught to us".

Forty years ago, if you saw someone with, say, a Mohican haircut, they stood out from the normal. They were different to the normal. It clearly upset "the consensus" because it was outwith societal norms. Poke fun, chuck a brick? Maybe. Today? No One Cares. Do what you like, do what you need to do. Flip, I've had green hair for months. (I'm sixty and balding, btw ) Why? Because, why not? My choice. I'm here but the once, and will do what the hell I want.

Forty years ago, I started at Uni: met a pile of people. One of whom, a few years ago, emailed everyone they knew and said "I'm no longer Dave, I'm Jenny, and my wife has declared she'll still be married to me." She got, she admitted, an overwhelmingly positive response, wishing her the best on the next stages of her transition.

Society is, I think, at a crux. Why do we need to conform to an external sense of what is 'right' - to follow the lazy route - when we can embrace individualism and let people do whatever the hell they feel most comfortable with? Most importantly: if it doesn't hurt others, why should we impose any limits on peoples' choices?

Andy

[Mrleft88]

Re: If two guys marry, what do I care?

Never mind. I miss read the previous post.
I have many gay friends, they don't treat me any worse than my straight friends do, so..... Ehn.... No biggie....

[skuthorp]

Re: If two guys marry, what do I care?

I reckon Salty got it right, fear. Fear of the 'other'. Humans like certainty, gender being the base certainty and they do not like that being challenged. That's why most of that fear is based in religions.

[RCRVRP]

Re: If two guys marry, what do I care?

There seems to be a mindset that goes, "If I don't understand it, it's automatically wrong, or evil."

Yes, a mindset that is pervasive on both the left and the right.

[Gerarddm]

Re: If two guys marry, what do I care?

^ LOL. Mostly on the right.

BTW, if two women marry, I equally don't care.

As Stephen Maturin once noted, there is little enough love in the world...

[LOKI]

Re: If two guys marry, what do I care?

I quite honestly am quite biased about this subject yet still wonder... what business is it of yours who marries who? Your influence should end at the end of your nose... your biases should not affect the rest of us . You do what you deem to be good and the rest will do theirs!!

[John Smith]

Re: If two guys marry, what do I care?

On a scale of 1 - 10, with ten being the most important thing, this stuff ought not rank a 1. Of course, with politicians, they may hold opinions and/or pass laws based on what they believe their base wants.

Seems to me there are many more important things that actually need to be addressed.

[LOKI]

Re: If two guys marry, what do I care?

Kind of seems like what I replied above!

[CWSmith]

Re: If two guys marry, what do I care?

I think it's simpler than some would indicate.

I'm 67. I was a teenager when homosexuality was viewed as a plague. I was in my 20s when I realized that 2 of my cousins were gay. I knew they were good men, and my view changed.

In my years, homosexuality threatened the sexual identity and the confidence of a male teenager and the worst thing you could call anyone was "queer". The lessons now taught in schools changed that, and that is the big reason why we need to oppose people like DeSantis who would turn back the clock and remove those lessons from the schools.

What I read tonight is that 37% of Americans are opposed to gay marriage and 19% say it is very bad for society. This is far less than it was when I was young and I think another generation and those numbers will be even lower.

It's really nothing more than an adolescent fear that is not challenged and goes unquestioned until it becomes cemented in the mind of an adult.

[LOKI]

Re: If two guys marry, what do I care?

As soon as us dum basses die our children will perhaps be able to correct the wrongs of our generation.

[CWSmith]

Re: If two guys marry, what do I care?

As soon as us dum basses die our children will perhaps be able to correct the wrongs of our generation.

It's true, but the shameful thing is that we are leaving it to them. This includes global warming which they will not be able to correct in just one generation.

[Too Little Time]

Re: If two guys marry, what do I care?

All that said, this country, as a country, has many far more important issues to concern itself with, so why is so much time and energy being spent in this area?

What you and I and many others think is at odds with what many others think. Therefore much time and energy is spent on the issue.

I suppose free will would have allowed you or your parents to have made a better choice of where and when you were born. But to argue for liberal causes in a country where both political parties lean to the right, is often fruitless.