I'd have to agree with the caveat that in so doing it does not prove the adage: "If we allow gay marriage we have to allow polygamous marriage too" (or beastiallity or incest ad nauseum!).

I say this purely because the contractual arrangement would be so different.

It's a wholly separate advocacy.

On a practical level, we have same-sex marriage and no one has ever said a word to me about legalising polygamy.

I just wish I was a lawyer getting paid to hammer out the details.

Wow! Talk about job for life!

Thanks for letting us know your sexual preferences.

What, he/she likes to have sex with multiple young animals?

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Maybe we should start a private thread about that?

Apparently...

Not that it's any of your business but yes, I have gotten many complaints about being a cock-tease. And have had many women threaten to rape me if I don't stop being a little (*)(*)(*)(*).

I'm regretting taking a break from the internet, I love debating this topic! Easiest arguement I know of for proponents of gay marriage.

The bottem line is consent. The only one of the listed possible marriage arrangements that is consentual is polygamy, which I'm not morally opposed to. Age of consent laws are in place for a good reason. Children cannot fully comprehend the arrangement they would be agreeing to, and you can't consent to something without knowing what it is. Animals cannot consent for the same reason. You cannot teach an animal the meaning and consequences of marriage. And even if you want to argue that dolphins or something can, there is no way to legally verify their consent.

What's there to understand?

Marriage means you live with someone and have sex with them. Whoopty (*)(*)(*)(*)ing doo. Yes, it's more of a pain in the ass then it sounds, but then again what isn't?


To say a child doesn't understand is grossly underestimating a child's intelligence. They understand well enough. Are they mature to handle it? Probably not...


But I don't see people stopping fourteen year old girls from having sex. Infact I see them whining about the need for education.


Well maybe if we brought back courting we wouldn't have that problem now would we?


Oh, so suddenly children can understand sex just fine but marriage is too farfetched? Give me a break. Liberalism talks so much out the ass I wonder why they even have mouths.

There's a significant difference between sex and marriage for a child. I don't think a child is responsible enough to handle either, but the education we give children about sex is not meant to imply that the child has a better understanding of sex than they do marriage. The difference is marriage can be controlled for the protection of the child, but sex can not. Unless you have your child under 24 hour surveillance, you can't control the choices a child makes regarding sex. Thus we have little choice but to do what we can to educate the children about sex in the hope they will make the appropriate decisions regarding it.

And yes, you definatly oversimplify marriage. Perhaps to the usual perspective, that's what it boils down to, but legal marriage serves a lot of purposes beyond just sex. You would not need to make it a legal issue if that's all there was to it.

__________________
True knowledge exists in being aware of what you don't know.