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We've all heard the arguments against gay marriage. Many religions, including most forms of Christianity, consider homosexuality a sin. Homosexuals cannot have children together, negating the most virtuous reason to get married. When they adopt, the kids have either "2 mommies" or "2 daddies," threatening "traditional family values" and potentially leaving the children open to ridicule from their peers. And, of course, by legalizing gay marriage, you fully condone homosexual behavior and contribute to the downfall of civilization, since an acceptance of homosexuality naturally leads to an acceptance of incest, bestiality, polygamy, pedophilia, and every other form of sexual perversion under the sun.

Perhaps I exaggerated that last point. I fully support gay marriage, because I truly think the above reasons against it are not fair. Let me explain, point-by-point:

First of all, there is a difference between marriage as a legal institution and marriage as a religious ritual or sacrament. Individual religions must choose how to deal with homosexual marriage within their religious communities, and many will condemn it. That is basically okay with me. The United States and many other nations, however, are not (in theory) bound by religious tenets. Freedom of religion should mean freedom from the religious values held by others, as well as a dedication not to impose religious beliefs upon others in legal settings. If someone's main reason for being against gay marriage is that the Bible condemns homosexuality, his or her argument does not hold in a legal, secular setting. And if someone is okay with "civil unions" instead of marriage, well, that's basically semantics, though it reeks of "separate but equal" doctrine.

Then there's the threat that homosexuals bring to the traditional idea of "family." I find the argument here to be very weak when one considers the wide variety of acceptable forms a family can already take - aside from the "typical" 2-parent 3-kid 1-dog 2-car middle-class family, there are single moms, single dads, grandparents raising grandkids, families that have adopted, biracial families, multi-generational families, step-dads, step-moms, wealthy families, poor families, rural, urban...point is, all sorts of different people constitute "families," and we would never question them. Is it so hard to see gay couples as yet another valid expression of the term "family"? In the past, certain types of families that we fully accept today were ostracized -

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