The "Same-Sex Marriage" Debate.

• Chockeh wrote on 2010-05-03 01:17
  Hetero shields are boring anyways.
• Axx wrote on 2010-05-03 01:18
  Well, since no one's gonna take up the against side, I'll throw this out here:
  

  
  The gay lifestyle is not something to be encouraged, as a lot of research shows it leads to a much lower life expectancy, psychological disorders, and other problems. Studies show that homosexuals, for a variety of reasons, have life expectancies of approximately 20 years less than the general population. Just like a lifestyle of smoking, drinking, etc., unhealthy lifestyles should be discouraged.

• Phunkie wrote on 2010-05-03 01:25
  I strongly believe that people ought to be able to love, marry and sex whoever they want to, as long as it's legally consensual.
  
  I mean, I have no problem with a 16 year old girl choosing to have sex with someone who is 20 years old, but that goes into a whole new other topic. So that's why I say legally consensual.
  
  
  

  Quote from Axx;26506:

  Well, since no one's gonna take up the against side, I'll throw this out here:

  
  
  This is a biased link. The name of the website is God and Religion.
  
  The only way I can think why being gay would be dangerous is if you live in a very homophobic society, such as many Islamic societies, and you decide to come out of the closet.
  
  You can run into a lot of people who will bash you and will not hesitate in physically hurting you.
  
  Such a sad world, that one of the Middle East.
• Chiri wrote on 2010-05-03 01:27
  I don't really think being gay is a 'lifestyle'.
  If I go to class, eat lunch, go to more class, come home, play video games, eat dinner... but have a SO who also happens to be female? I don't think I'm living a lifestyle too different from my straight counterparts.
• Phunkie wrote on 2010-05-03 01:32
  A lifestyle is a way a person lives.
  
  ANY way of living can be considered a lifestyle.
  
  Waking up at 2 pm every day = lifestyle.
  
  
  But yes, I agree. The way a gay person lives isn't so much different than one of a straight person.
• Axx wrote on 2010-05-03 01:34

  Quote from Phunkie;26519:

  
  
  This is a biased link. The name of the website is God and Religion.
  

  
  
  FINE, directly from the sources that they quoted:
  

  
  OBJECTIVE: To assess how HIV infection and AIDS (HIV/AIDS) impacts on mortality rates for gay and bisexual men. METHODS: Vital statistics data were obtained for a large Canadian urban centre from 1987 to 1992. Three scenarios were utilized with assumed proportions of gay and bisexual men of 3%, 6% and 9% among the male population age 20 years. For each scenario, non-HIV deaths were distributed according to the assumed proportion of the total population (3%, 6% or 9%) but 95% of HIV deaths were distributed to gay and bisexual men as this is the proportion of AIDS cases in gay and bisexual men in this centre. The main outcome measures of interest were age-specific patterns of death, life expectancy and life expectancy lost due to HIV/AIDS at exact age 20 years, and the probability of living from age 20 to 65 years. RESULTS: Estimates of the mid-period gay and bisexual population ranged from 5406 to 16,219 for the three scenarios, and total deaths in these men from 953 to 1703. Age-specific mortality was significantly higher for gay and bisexual men than all men aged 30-44. Life expectancy at age 20 for gay and bisexual men ranged from 34.0 years to 46.3 years for the 3% and 9% scenarios respectively. These were all lower than the 54.3 year life expectancy at age 20 for all men. The probability of living from age 20 to 65 years for gay and bisexual men ranged from 32% for the 3% scenario, to 59% for the 9% scenario. These figures were considerably lower than for all men where the probability of living from 20 to 65 was 78%. CONCLUSION: In a major Canadian centre, life expectancy at age 20 years for gay and bisexual men is 8 to 20 years less than for all men. If the same pattern of mortality were to continue, we estimate that nearly half of gay and bisexual men currently aged 20 years will not reach their 65th birthday. Under even the most liberal assumptions, gay and bisexual men in this urban centre are now experiencing a life expectancy similar to that experienced by all men in Canada in the year 1871.

  
  
  will edit in the other ones as I get to them...
• Laconicus wrote on 2010-05-03 01:36

  This is a biased link. The name of the website is God and Religion.

  
  That's what I thought too, but to be fair if you google "gay life expectancy" there are a lot of other links that say the same thing, like this. I don't know what to say about the argument o_O
  
  Edit: oh ninja'd lol
• Chiri wrote on 2010-05-03 01:37
  .-. that's saying gay people with AIDs have low life expectancy.
  
  All people with AIDs have low life expectancy.
• Phunkie wrote on 2010-05-03 01:39
  People with HIV/AIDS live shorter than people without. No doubt about that.
  
  Not all gay people have HIV/AIDS.
  
  I'm pretty sure healthy gay people live as long as healthy straight people.
  
  I don't get what you're trying to say.
• EndlessDreams wrote on 2010-05-03 01:41

  Quote from Axx;26469:

  Offtopic:
  
  Uh, no, zero population growth is very very bad (economically). Just ask the Japanese, who are struggling with low birth rates and an aging population. Who supports that aging population? The next generation. Population growth is negative? A lower number of young people support an increasing number of older people. What about jobs? As the aging population retires, there are more jobs than there are employees, leading to lots of bad stuff! Etc etc etc. Although it still amazes me that everyone seems to think GDP and the economy should always be going up, up, up. rant rant rant....
  /offtopic.
  

  
  
  Zero population growth is usually a trend for "rich" first world countries. Some of the European countries and Japan is like this. The people in these countries are just way too busy with their jobs and careers to make/raise children. It has nothing to do with same-sex marriage at all.
  
  If you look at some of the poorer countries, their growth rates are insane.
  
  I do not believe religion should be the foundation for any law. Just look at that Sharia law that is in many third world countries. (Or the Middle Ages, lol) Then look at some of the first world countries where religion do not have complete control of governments. The well being of a country seem to be tied to how close is the government and religion.
  
  The only justification for the banning of same-sex marriages are all religious reasons
  (mainly Christian fundamentalism in the US).
  
  No, I do not support the banning of gay marriages, nor do I support any religious laws.
• Tedio wrote on 2010-05-03 01:44
  I could care less.
  
  But leave the whole parenting alone. I wouldn't want to be raised by a same sex couple, especially in this day and age.....
• Chockeh wrote on 2010-05-03 01:45
  How do you encourage someone who is completely hetero to be gay anyways?
• Phunkie wrote on 2010-05-03 01:46

  Quote from Gargamaru;26553:

  I could care less.
  
  But leave the whole parenting alone. I wouldn't want to be raised by a same sex couple, especially in this day and age.....

  
  
  You say you don't care, but then you say you wouldn't want to be raised by gay couples.
  
  That screams out contradiction.
  
  Why?
• Axx wrote on 2010-05-03 01:51
  Well I totally skimmed over the 'how we did this part' and just went to the conclusions, because I assumed that an actual published article wouldn't do something as idiotic and pointless as "assigning certain percentages of a population as gay, and attributing 95% of hiv-related deaths to that % of the population". My god, how they even got their article started is a mystery to me. I lose that one.
• Tarvos wrote on 2010-05-03 01:53
  I support gay marriage, since, there's nothing wrong with it at all. Really, I don't see why on earth, outside of religious reasons (and I myself hold the same position that Endless does) people even care about weather gays can get married or not...