hey

[A Black Falcon]

The argument that it would hurt marriage is just as stupid and completely, totally wrong as the rest of your arguement. As I've said before, it would do the exact opposite in the long run. Getting people who are together into a legal partership cannot be anything other than good for society. I cannot imagine any possible way that the result could be anything else and the facts of what has happened in the places where it has been implemented verify that. It not only does not hurt marriage but it helps it. After all, more people are making their relationships official! It would mean all kinds of things for homosexuals... prime among them the legal benifits marriage brings (hospital visitation, getting onto insurance policies, etc, etc). Can a 'civil union' setup do those same benifits? Yes it can, and that would be a great start. The biggest unfair thing is not allowing homosexuals to have the same rights everyone else has, and civil unions, with equal benifits to marriage legally, would rectify that great injustice.

And it would help society as a whole because you're reinforcing the idea that long-term partnerships are a good thing. This would actually HELP marriage, not hurt it! I cannot even begin to understand how anyone can say anything else and not admit that they are saying it 100% because of religion...

Normal? There is no "normal". Yes, it's obviously not the ideal for the species because it will not continue the species, but we tolerate disabled people (who were born with disabilities for whatever reason, whether genetic or not) and minorities so how is this any different?

The answer is that it is not.