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Same-sex marriage gains traction around world

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I guess on the positive side a side effect will be the world's population growth will start to slow down as this spreads.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

In theory zero population growth but medical science can impregnate women who want to spend the money for a pregnancy.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Let gay people get married, they have the right to be just as miserable and sexless as I am!

16 ( +16 / -2 )

We have to show future generations that it was during our lifetime that equal rights to marriage whomever you want happen.

I really hope Japan, start thinking about passing the law on gay marriage. A tall order. Most likely Taiwan or thailand will be the first Asian country to do it.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Those (countries) apposing it are only gonna look silly being late to the party. In no way does gay marriage affect straight people and as a proud brother to a gay sister who has given birth via artificial insemination to a young, outstandingly athletic, kind, caring, funny, etc, etc, young man... children born to gay parents, or even adopted, receive the same unconditional, trusting love that they would from any other normal, sane, loving, caring parent. From any walk of life. Also, the only way population growth will slow down is from people discriminating against gay couples raising children. I can only imagine the hundreds of thousands of children alive today who are literally dieing for a better parent or guardian than they have now, and would take a loving, caring human being as a parent, gay or not, without any hesitation.

9 ( +11 / -2 )

As was stated before. Marriage has been around since the dawn of time. It is neither religious nor a "strait" people’s right. Holy Matrimony, on the other hand, is a religious term and would be, by religious doctrine, for strait people. Therefore bring on GAY MARRAIGE. Ya!

Strait people and bigots can have their holy matrimony, gays and the rest of the civilised populous can engage in the non-religious created marriage.

4 ( +5 / -2 )

Belgcoff, remember that Japan always takes it cues from the West and waits a good 10-25 years to enact any change that America or Europe have introduced, you know, to make sure it's safe to do, etc. So don't hold your breath expecting Japan to blaze a trail anywhere.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Population growth is alread down in the countries where this is happening. notice it is not in countries that have strong views on homosexuality across Africa and some Asian countries). Seems to me that gay people clamouring for marriage is somehow a bit of a paradox.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Population growth is alread down in the countries where this is happening. notice it is not in countries that have strong views on homosexuality across Africa and some Asian countries). Seems to me that gay people clamouring for marriage is somehow a bit of a paradox.

@AKBfan : ??? Japan, Germany, South Korea are probably the 3 most declining populations on Earth yet all 3 of these countries have no legislation on same sex marriage, Uruguay has fairly high population growth as well; I'm curious as to how you reached that conclusion? Also I'm failing to see this "paradox" you are mentioning..?

4 ( +4 / -0 )

This argument that population growth will decrease because of legalizing same-sex marriage is ridiculous. Same-sex couples make a insignificant share of the population. Plus the number of children that need to be adopted is much bigger than the number of same sex couples that are getting married.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

JustinPascoe:

" As was stated before. Marriage has been around since the dawn of time. It is neither religious nor a "strait" people’s right. "

Yes, marriage between a man and a woman has. Or between one man and several women, in many cultures.

But not "marriage" between two men. Two men are not a family and should not be sanctioned by government as such. That they have sex with each other does not change that. I do not care what they do in bed.... ironically, only the same-sex marriage advocates try to turn this into a gay vs. non-gay issue. It is not.

A government-sanctioned sanction should be a man and a woman. If and how they have sex should be nobody`s business.

-11 ( +2 / -13 )

dcog9065:

" AKBfan : ??? Japan, Germany, South Korea are probably the 3 most declining populations on Earth yet all 3 of these countries have no legislation on same sex marriage, "

But all three do not criminalize homosexuality, and at least Germany has a strong lobby in favour of same-sex marriage, and will probably get this nonsense.

Now direct your attention to the countries where the real population explosion is happening: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Egypt, Morocco, Libya, etc. In all of these countries, homosexuality is not only non-accepted, it is illegal. And where Shariah law is enforced, the punishment for homosexuality is DEATH.

I would suggest the gay rights advocates address that real problem first, before pushing the "same sex marriage" agenda in those countries where being homosexual is no problem for them in the first place.

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

Why in the world does everyone want the government telling them who they can or can`t marry to begin with???

Speak up sheeple.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Decades ago, a Japanese homosexual celebrity said on a TV show that in Japanese gay community a couple creates a legal tie between them by filing adoption in which the older partner adopts the younger partner, though they are about the same age. They call it kekkon, “marriage” and nyuseki, “family registry filing”.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

pointofview:

They can do what they want, but society should not give legal sanction to that. In the same way that in our culture, polygamy is also not sanctioned as a "marriage", or do want to introduce that too?

(At least fundamentalist muslims and mormons would be happy about that.)

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

Yes, few exceptions but countries like Italy, Spain, Britain etc all have tiny pop. growth. and look at all of Sub Saharan Africa and India where still huge population growth and virulently antu gay. Paradox is that generally gay lifestyle is progressive and alternative yet they want to express part of their relationship through the outmoded concept of marriage.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

pointofview@

Why in the world does everyone want the government telling them who they can or can`t marry to begin with???

Well, I guess part of it is to insure the human race continues. If men marry men then no children will result. Women marrying women will also provide no off spring although they have alternatives. This men marry men and women marry women is just a phase that the world is going through. In 50, a 100 or 200 years hence people will look back at this as a unusual thing that people did for a while - a bit like smoking will be looked back on.

I'm not religious in any sense but if you look at the Ten Commandments they lay out a way for society to live. And one of them was man shall not lie with man(or beast). Had everyone followed that common sense we would not have AIDS today. Really. It would not exist.

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

And one of them (Ten Commandments) was man shall not lie with man(or beast)

Really? Which one did that replace, then?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

SimondB - I think that is not a Commandment, but in Leviticus. And Leviticus says also that many things are bad, such as a pork and shellfish and tattoos.

Maybe many people don't follow all the rules!

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

SimindB:

" If men marry men then no children will result. "

Err... no. If Western governments cave in to the demands to expand the definition of "marriage" to "two men", then children will still result. Being recognized as a married couple, these guys will then have access to a whole slew of societal benefits, like maternal leave, fertility treatment, access to adoption, you name it.

And the children of these "marriages" will have to deal with all the PC dogma of being told that they have "2 daddies". The most infuriating thing here is that this experiment includes people who have not been asked if they want to participate, i.e. the children.

A sane society should protect the family (i.e. a biological family), instead of demanding that nature takes second place to PC dogma.

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

If we followed the Biblical view of marriage, heaps of guys would have concubines and would be allowed - by god's law - to marry any girl they raped.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I think that is not a Commandment, but in Leviticus.

Wow, you're probably the first Japanese person who knows the book of Leviticus.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

If we followed the Biblical view of marriage, heaps of guys would have concubines and would be allowed - by god's law - to marry any girl they raped.

Another person telling us about The Bible and about marriage not being a religious thing who doesn't understand it. Either having read into it what they want to, forgetting the parts they want to or possibly despite even having read it all still can't accept it. I'm not going to explain it, you have to read it for your self and its going to take more than 5 min.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Scoobydoo, you don't have to bother explaining the Bible to me - I've read it.

I'll let it explain itself:

4) Laws of Rape   (Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NLT)       If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father.  Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Mr Kobayashi - many Japanese, like me, are Baptist Christian. Leviticus is not so secret. But many people choose one piece of Leviticus (gay is bad) and say everyone should listen, but never say about another part (don't have a tattoo)!

0 ( +3 / -3 )

I'm going on, but if the Bible is to be taken literally, polygamy, slavery, incest and genocide could all be acceptable under certain conditions or when "necessary". As society changes and modernises into an urbanised structure, it stands to reason that there is some leeway, but wickedness, greed and murder are all constant no-no's throughout the old and new testaments.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Paradox is that generally gay lifestyle is progressive and alternative yet they want to express part of their relationship through the outmoded concept of marriage.

Poor logic, no wonder you did not explain it the first time. The paradox is in your logic:

You take it as fact that the gay lifestyle is "progressive and alternative". You take it as fact that marriage is an outmoded concept. Therefore if gays want to get married it is a paradox.

However if you reject the argument that marriage is "outmoded" your argument collapses.

Gay people want to have a legal and social bond to their union in much the same way that heterosexuals do. This suggest that they have much the same desires as everyone else.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Well, I guess part of it is to insure the human race continues. If men marry men then no children will result. Women marrying women will also provide no off spring although they have alternatives

Gimmie a break, if anyone thinks that the world's population is going to decrease so much due to same sex marriages they are living in lala land.

There is no fear of this happening, don't worry at all, us hetero-sexuals will take up the slack.

Let the folks who want same sex marriage for themselves be allowed the same rights and privileges as any m-f marriage.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Good for these guys ^.^ I cant wait till i finish college find a job and be able to marry my girlfriend ^.^

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Scoobydoo, you don't have to bother explaining the Bible to me - I've read it.

I'll let it explain itself:

4) Laws of Rape (Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NLT) If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.

Thanks, you just confirmed what I wrote in the post about people quoting things they read and didn't understand. You need to read the whole bible and put it together. This is how cults are created, by taking part of the truth not the whole truth.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Yep this isn't going to affect the population at all. Gay people are already here, so if they didn't want kids via artificial insemination then th**ey wouldn't have them anyway.

And homosexuality causing aids? Wooooow

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Why cant gay people be able to marry. We are no less of a human being than anyone else here.

Who says two men are not Family! seriously!! Around the world gay couples are being recognised more and more as legitimate family’s. some people need to get with the times! And its not the gay marriage advocates turning this into a "gays V's Straits" issue. If "strait" people stopped trying to suppress equal rights and deny gay couples the right to marry, then there would be no issue at all. You guys just want to stand there, make the rules to suit you and then turn and call us wingers when we object. Some attitudes can only be described as extremely homophobic - or ignorant as i dont believe it is a phobia. some people are just rotten.

Don’t forget, it wasn’t that long ago that black people were told they weren’t real citizens in America, woman couldn’t vote, couldn’t become leaders or business executives. Children had no rights. All of this changed due to equality. Now it is the Gays turn for Equal rights. “Not equal for strait people only because we are a real family!” How ignorant.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

****If Western governments cave in to the demands to expand the definition of "marriage" to "two men", then children will still result. Being recognized as a married couple, these guys will then have access to a whole slew of societal benefits, like maternal leave, fertility treatment, access to adoption, you name it.

And the children of these "marriages" will have to deal with all the PC dogma of being told that they have "2 daddies". The most infuriating thing here is that this experiment includes people who have not been asked if they want to participate, i.e. the children.****

Really? Are you serious? Why cant gay couples have the same social benefits as strait couples? Isn’t this discrimination on a large scale? And do you really think gay people haven’t already got kids? I have 3 and they are just as loved and cared for as any child in a strait family. The only issue with "PC Dogma" is with bigoted people's views being expressed to the child just because it’s a different type of family than what society is used to. And what about kids in poor families. They didn’t ask to be born into that social economic status either. Should poor people be told they can’t have rights now? These kids get teased and bashed every day for being poor. Let’s strip poor people’s rights too! Who’s with me?? No-one, that’s who,. Because it is discrimination. I know a few gay families and the kids are just as, if not more, well adjusted than the other "strait" or "real" families kids because they get used to injustice and discrimination as they are subjected to it on a daily basis due to ill informed and scared little people who are ignorant, just as the kids from poor, interracial, different religion believing families have to deal with the same thing. We cant all be strait, rich, white catholic people now can we? Is that the next step? If People are going to use the whole "for goodness sakes, think of the children" comment, DO YOUR HOMEWORK FIRST! More kids in strait families get abused and neglected and murdered than any from gay families.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

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