In your view how does same sex marriage affect traditional marriage?

It has no effect. I imagine it has a tremendous effect on the quality of life of the same sex couples though.

It doesn't trivialize opposite sex marriage. The people who have subscribed to traditional marriage have trivialized it on their own. Fifty percent of "traditional" marriages end in divorce. Married people are now in the minority in this country - I guess that's because it's way up on that pedestal and no one can reach it.

Jim: Your logic is flawed! Selfless service and responsibility have already all but disappeared from our society. Mind you that would be under watchful eyes of traditional marriage that this occurred. It is not because of same sex marriage that virtue has declined. It has nothing to do with it. Maybe traditional marriage is in the shitter because of the collapse of virtue, what do you think? Logic man! The collapse of virtues and decline of traditional families began way before same sex marriage was an issue, much less on a ballot.

Same sex marriage changes the traditional way that people think of marriage. It challenges the hedgemony that has existed since the birth of the human race. If you have been doing something for so long and then someone introduces a new way of doing things, then you would most likely be hard-pressed to adapt to the change, is it not true? Traditional couples will have difficulty acknowledging homosexual couples because it is simply not traditional, or different.

It may also make heterosexual couples angry because they have prejudices against homosexuals. Would it negatively affect traditional marriage? Probably not, unless there is a conflict between the spouses or their families on gay and lesbians. Accepting same-sex marriage will also affect the statistics on marriage, as there would be an increase of married people and an increase in divorces.

On a personal level, same sex marriages having an affect on traditional marriage is negligible.

It doesn't affect it at all. Marriage is marriage, no matter what the sexes are. It is a legal union of two people who wish to combine households for tax purposes and yadda yadda.

Marriages are not "weddings", though most people think they are the same things. The marriage is the legal ceremony, and the wedding is the religious or traditional ceremony.

The bottom line of the argument is this - if two people love each other and they both have the same plumbing, who are we to say that they can't get married? I thought this country was founded on tolerance. We spend so much time on seperation of state that it seems so stupid not to allow this.

Traditional marriage won't be threatened, at least in the red states. Both types will become options at City Hall. By the way, Texas Cowgirl, marriage is technically non-religious. It is a secular process by which you obtain a license from the state, like a driver license. Do NOT combine Church with State, Texas Cowgirl. BTW, don't preach to us about marriage being strictly for the religious when you use a photo of porn star Lexi Diamond for your avatar.

It throws away the whole principle of Marriage. Marriage is between a man and a woman. No man can be a woman even if he has a "change" and niether can a woman be a man. It goes deeper than just the surface. A child needs a mother and a father to learn things from both. Thats why single families though full of love often lack that certain something. It confuses a child's sense of morality, and right and wrong to see two men sleeping in one room or two women and having to call them Mom and Dad or Mom and Mom or whatever they do to make it seem alright.

Marriage was established to create a sense of stability so a human child could feel safe and grow up well rounded.

Forget about being politically correct everyone even those that do it know its WRONG and UNNATURAL.

It affects it not at all. What is affected is our obedience to God's word. I don't understand what makes some people homosexual, I just love people anyway, and don't judge. But to me, some groups try to take it where it doesn't need to go- I mean- is same sex marriage necessary? I know that not all gay people think so, but evidently enough do to make it an issue.

I seem to be hearing a lot of people say that marriage is a mockery anyway, with the divorce rate being so high, so let's just make it more of one. It was not designed that way- to end in divorce- and until human beings learn to listen to the words God gave to us as a guide for our lives, we will just keep making more bad choices. You guys work it out- the world has such huge problems, gay marriage just doesn't seem like the top of the list to me. Life isn't easy for any of us.

I think that any marriage makes ALL marriages more sacred and more special. For ANY two people to stand together before all those they love and who love them to declare their intention to share their lives with each other "til death do us part" is beautiful.

With all that's wrong with the world, and all that's flawed about humanity this should be the one thing that no one should have a problem with...and as a preemptive rebuttal to those who will invariably cite the Bible as a source for same sex marriage being wrong...I invite you to re-read the book and this time pay attention to the message...the powers that be don't care whether its "Adam and Eve", Adam and Steve" or "Eve and Lilith" as long as the LOVE is there.

I don't think that it should, I personally have many gay and bisexual friends. I was invited to an after-wedding party from my friend's lesbian wedding. They don't behave differently than my parents do to one another and they are very happy together. I think that the only real change is that the couple can't concieve a child naturally, this is a biological truth until the stem cell research is completed, but in my opininon, there are very few differences between heterosexual marriages and homosexual marriages.

Everyone has the right to choose what they do in life. Almost every church/congregation in the world is run by an old fart with outdated views. That's alright though, their stance on gay marriage is totally up to them. What gets me is that they some how slip elected officials into office who do whatever the Catholic church tells them to do. Separation of church and state has turned into a one-way steet. No one waves a red flag at the church for descrimination against the people. But when the people bite back churches scream descrimiation and the people are silenced.

It doesn't. If anything, it strengthens the "institution of marriage" which is weakened more by the sky-high divorce rate of opposite-sex couples, than it ever would be by allowing gay couples to marry. If family is the cornerstone of society, wouldn't it make sense to support people who want to start families, gay or straight, by allowing them to obtain the stability they can gain from being married? I would think a loving, married, gay couple could provide a more supportive and healthy family environment than the legions of straight couples who end up in bitter divorces and single-parent situations. Hypocrisy abounds in the anti-gay-marriage camp.