How gay marriage supports the sanctity of marriage

It is not the gay rights movement that is delegitimizing marriage; on the contrary, Edie Windsor has made one of the most eloquent statements on the importance and significance of a legal union:

"The fact is, marriage is this magic thing. Marriage ... symbolizes commitment and love like nothing else in the world. And it's known all over the world. I mean, wherever you go, if you're married, that means something to people and it meant a difference in feeling the next day."- Edie Windsor

Many in the LGBT community value marriage enough to want the right to marry. Why villianize them, religious right? 

Some argue gay marriage will delegitamize marriage because gays and lesbians cannot procreate. If the point of marriage is to make children legitimate, however, marriage would be pointless for the sterile or those using reliable contraception. Clearly couples not capable or not intending on having children are encouraged to wed. Therefore, childbearing/rearing is not the primary function of marriage, at least in the modern day. As such, gay marriage is no threat to straight marriage. 

Other arguments against gay marriage also cannot stand. You cannot discriminate against a group of people and violate their rights simply because you find their behavior repulsive, so attacks on the unnaturalness of two men or two women having sexual relations is simply not an adequate reason to deny two consenting, loving adults the right to marry. 

In the same line of reasoning, arguments that "children need two, opposite sexed parents" is a ridiculous argument to deny the rights of the gay community. Pediatricians in the AMA have made statements that marriage of their gay or lesbian parents is actually good for the children involved. Studies have shown children raised by gay and lesbian couples are as well-adjusted as the children of straight couples. What's more, if having two opposite sexed parents for every child were the real concern, don't you think those with political or economic power would be far more concerned with single moms and dads?

You know what is really "demeaning" marriage, religious right? Educating women. Think about it. Most modern Western women get an education and can provide for themselves. They leave their parent's homes in their late teens and early twenties, and are not economically forced to immediately enter a husband's home. Women learn how to navigate life without a man to provide for her. Women can choose to not have children by using contraceptives. Some even choose to have children out-of-wedlock, and learn they don't need a man to be a good mom. As such, women loose their virginity in their late teens but don't marry until their mid to late twenties. 

Economic and reproductive freedoms are not the only reason why women are waiting almost 10 years after beginning sexual activity to marry. In the in-between time, many young women are intentionally living with a significant other to determine whether or not a potential marriage would be happy, get this, because they do not want to disrespect the institution of marriage or harm any children they may have with their partner by later seeking a divorce. Some pro-gay straight women, aware of the struggles and heartaches of their gay and lesbian friends, are delaying marriage until their brothers and sisters can also legally marry. Others still, because of the pain of their parents' divorce they experienced as a child (or the pain of watching a religious parent not leave an abusive relationship out of respect for the institution), have decided to never marry because they have lost faith in it. Still others of these women, using an understanding of statistics and the research savvy they gained in post-secondary education, have read the studies produced by the US Federal Government that show women who marry sooner are more likely to divorce than those who marry later, and that committed couples who live together before marriage are no more likely to divorce than couples who marry without having lived together. 

So, religious right wing America, you want to stop the cohabitation, divorce, and gay marriage that you claim is destroying marriage? The solution is simple: stop letting women be strong and independent, and you'll get the narrow-minded, misogynist view of marriage back. 

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