by John Hummel

Created on: March 23, 2008   Last Updated: January 19, 2009

Rather than the gender of the participants in question, the real criteria for marriage should be whether the two people involved actually love one another. Nowadays, men and women are too quick to jump into marriage without giving much consideration to what it actually means or what kind of commitment it requires to be successful at it, thus finding themselves several years later either divorced or feeling trapped in an unhappy union.

A divorce rate over 50 percent, multiple marriages, and more children than ever before being raised in unhappy homes have done more to erode the sanctity of marriage than same-sex unions ever will.

Now, I'm not saying that any religion should have to change their doctrine regarding the morality of same-sex marriages, that's an issue for the churches and their congregations to resolve, but the state should at least offer a legally sanctioned alternative for same-sex couples. There is no reason to deny them the same legal and financial benefits afforded heterosexual couples based solely on their sexual orientation. To do so is discrimination, pure and simple.

There's talk that same-sex marriage will lead to the erosion of the family. This is false. Families already exist in a wide multitude of combinations; all they are asking for is a legally recognized sanction.

Erosion of family values has been going on for awhile now, with people taking a lackadaisical attitude toward their marital vows, showing a general disinterest in what their kids are doing or how they're progressing, and focusing on their own selfish interests rather than those of their family. As well, often couples will have children at a young age without giving consideration to what a responsibility it is and either have no idea how to raise them or lack the support system to assist in helping them to raise well-rounded, productive citizens.

There are folks who feel threatened by gay marriage because they fear children being raised by homosexuals will be molested or 'corrupted' into turning gay. There is absolutely no evidence to support either of these statements and dare I say that a gay person may be better suited than many to raise a child to be a caring, compassionate adult, having experienced discrimination themselves? On average though, I would bet that homosexual couples could do at least an equal job of raising children as straight couples, and as evidenced by much of what we see on the news these days, they certainly couldn't do much worse.

I fail to see how people

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