Should they be allowed to get married?

This is a hot topic of discussion every now and then around the lunch table at work.

There was going to be a ruling whether California will allow gay marriages or not.
Lots of opinions were given about why they want to get married, and why the government might deny. All these were technical reasons. No one really expressed their personal opinion about the issue.

So well, I will express mine. I don't mind! Go for it, I say!

They are not freaks of nature. There have been references to homosexuals throughout history, so nothing new. Sure, they are minority, but not uncommon. Earlier it was taboo, I suppose because they were the minority and looked down upon. Even now, people are afraid to "come out of the closet" because society is not very accepting of them. Some people are so hateful towards them, that there have been incidents where a gay person was beaten to death. Someone might say, so why now? They lived in their closet so far, stay there. Well, there are women's rights, animal rights, so why should they not have rights that a "normal" couple has?

People want to marry for all kinds of reasons.

• They have religious reasons, they want to live together, but do not want to "live in sin".
• Their family wants them to get married (otherwise they are not "settled" enough, they say, rolling my eyes at that, stomping my foot and all)
• They want to have a family, and want to be married for that reason.
• They want to have the legal benefits that married couples have
• They want that sense of security and commitment that marriage brings.
  

Whatever it might be, all these reasons apply to gays as well as to straights.

One person here said that they want to get married so that they can adopt kids. I pointed out that being married is not a pre-requisite to having kids, adopted or not. He said, nah, not allowed. I presented him with the case of Brangelina, who have quite an international team building up there. (And I love that they love the kids so much!). In fact Angelina was single when she adopted the first couple kids.

So then he countered with, wellll....you know, I wonder whether gay couples should be allowed to adopt/have kids or not. The kid will have so much trouble growing up. Kids in school will laugh at them, they will not be able to understand the situation, etc. My response to this was, so you think all these kids that do end up messed up have had gay parents? Straight folks can mess up a child's life just as much! So many straight folks have "accidental" children when they have no clue what to do with the child. At least in this case, the parents are fully aware of what they are doing, why they are doing it, its quite a painful process for them to get pregnant or adopt. They do it because they "really want to", not simply because their kid is "भगवान् की देन" or "उपरवाले की इच्छा"!

I agree that the kids of gay parents will have more than their fair share of ridiculing while growing up, but it is up to the parents to teach them and prepare them for such behavior। They will need to make them aware of the possible hostility they will face, but if the parents love their child, raise him to be a good, responsible person, the kid will love them regardless of their orientation.

I personally know of two such couples. One of the couples tried to have a baby (IVF, I suppose), when that didn't work out, they are going for adoption. They so desperately want a child, I hope they can adopt soon.

The way I look at it, there are two people who want to spend their lives together, set up a nice home and raise a family. They live very normal lives, do normal jobs, eat and sleep like we do, are exceptionally creative (you gotta see their Halloween Parade, man, they are AWESOME!), they do not bother us "straights" in any way, they are not denying us anything, not stopping us from doing anything. Most are very peaceful people, so why are we interfering in their lives? Who are we to judge what they can or cannot do.

And they are living together, raising kids, all of that anyway, so why not let them get married? Makes no sense to me *scratching-my-head*. क्या फ़र्क पड़ेगा? Just let them sign that piece of paper!

I don't know what the ruling of the case was. Must have been denied, else there would have been quite an uproar about it. I do hope they win at some point!

They are just people, you know, just like you and me!