What would gay people gain from being able to marry?

[ktownfarmboy]

What does marriage mean to heterosexuals? If you want the intelligent answer to THAT, there is none. There really isn't much logic to marriage. It's a final step to commitment, a type of insurance and closure for insecurities. It doesn't really ACCOMPLISH anything except give legitimate parents to any offspring that are produced or adopted.

But if heterosexuals feel its necessary despite its lack of reasonable necessity, then why shouldn't homosexuals feel the same way?

[Lanani]

Suppose you belonged to a small subgroup that wasn't legally permitted to do something that was considered a basic human right for the vast majority of the society you're living in.

Now suppose, when you asked why you weren't entitled to the same rights/opportunities/whatever you want to call it as the majority was, the rationale you were given was "because you don't really need to, and besides, it makes us queasy."

Would you find that argument satisfying?

The question you're asking could apply to a straight person just as easily as it could a gay person--there are no intrinsic differences in the longing for love and marriage between homosexuals and heterosexuals.

So I'm going to answer it as a white, heterosexual female: I think I will gain stability, happiness, commitment, and family from marriage. I expect that a gay person would gain EXACTLY the same thing.

[Sebastiano]

what do heterosexual couples gain from being married? that element should be present in the relationship.

[Sophie]

Acceptance as equal Americans.

[JennaA]

What would anyone gain? And how is "they want equal rights" not an intelligent answer? That is the only answer, you just don't want to hear it, you hateful person. Married people have more rights than people in civil unions; that's just a fact. Segregation is illegal in America, and just like it's illegal to separate people based on race, it should be (and frankly, it is) illegal to separate people based on sexual preference.

[KentrellR]

well, they'll gain the right to divorce...because that's what most of them will do anyway after they get married

[PogoPossum]

Smokey the Bear can marry Daisy Duck for all I care.....let them do what they want. Jesus would turn water to wine for their reception if He were here today.

[supermodel]

I think what a gay person feels by demanding the right to be wed: 1st the sense of being accepted by society, in other words they feel they and their marriage is as normal as others in every sense, social signature, religious, legality wise such as adoption of child etc. A legal marriage is considered to be a complete marriage, no dispute about that. I guess a gay person wants to avoid all reason why he or she can not be as normal as any straight person and wedding is one of the most important part of the life. Removing the word 'right' from life would be all wrong. A right is a right.

[lawrenceba549]

Divorce bills and community property.

[diamonds]

A deeper debate on the benefits of marriage is probably not what you are looking for. There really are none, it's a hollow practice that does not really have a place in the world today.

Gay people are more offended by the fact they are not being recognized by society as part of a "norm" most don't want to actually get married its the principle of acceptance in a society that you are a part of that is the deeper contention here.