Although I personally do not, I was wondering what others think. :)
Well, given that I’m gay I would have to say yes.
I find the arguments against gay marriage, and therefore gay rights, like the ones stated above amusing. Yes marriage is the building blocks of the family unit, so why are literally hundreds of thousands of families across the country not extended the same rights of marriage?
The original purpose of marriage was procreation, yes. This in no way excludes gay couples. Many use artificial means to have children (as many sterile straight couples do), and many more adopt children. Others already have children from previous marriages. Also, I don’t see anyone arguing that old people, and people who are sterile, shouldn’t be allowed to get married. We also do not make people fill out forms declaring that they are planning to have children when they get married. That’s because beginning in the 20th Century marriage stopped being centered around procreation and started being about love.
I also love the slippery slope argument mentioned above: “But, if we let men get married to men, what’s going to stop a man from trying to marry a horse?” This has some variations, from trees, to horses, to dogs, to polygamy. Well, to start I would like to point out that neither trees nor horses have been granted rights by the constitution. Also, if everyone is so tolerant of gay people, and many are quick to point out that they have gay friends, why do we immediately associate gay marriage with bestiality and polygamy?
Unfortunately, my civil liberties are severely hindered by the fact that I can’t get married. If my partner gets sick, there is no law protecting my rights to visit him in the hospital; if he dies, there is no law saying I have any rights to our owned property because as far as the government is concerned, “our property” doesn’t exist. If children get involved this gets even uglier and more complicated. There is more than one case on record of judges taking children away from a surviving partner and giving them to an ex-husband or ex-wife who has no connection to the child, simply because the surviving parent “had no legal connection to the children.” This is all directly connected to the fact that we can’t get married.
So, I’m afraid people can’t have it both ways. If you support gay rights, as I do, you have to support gay marriage. Without gay marriage, we’re second class citizens, and are only accorded the rights of second class citizens.