🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4i5gn8$hol@natasha.rmii.com> dand@rainbow.rmii.com (Dan Duncan) writes:
>As I recall, Bob Cormack (bob@compopt.com) wrote:
>->rules for the marriage contract (tax advantages, etc.) -- is that 
>->marriage results in children;
>
>Always?
>
>->and the government (all of us, that is)
>->have a strong interest in seeing that children are protected and
>->nourished and brought to adulthood in a way that makes them responsible
>->citizens.  
>
>Which can happen in a gay or strayt marriage, or a single parent.
>
>->This reason does not exist for same-sex marriage contracts, so why not
>->just let them be governed by the existing contract laws?  It would make
>->more sense to modify the law to extend benefits for those couples 
>->(same sex or otherwise) who are really raising children than to extend 
>->the marriage laws to a degree not justified by any societal interest.

Should heterosexual couples only be allowed to get married after they 
have children?  

>I hate to break this to you, but a lot of gay couples DO in fact have
>children from outside their relationship.  Just because each child is only 
>genetically related to one partner doesn't mean anything.  How many children 
>today are step-children in this same situation?
>
>Then again, many gay couples choose to have a child within their
>marriage.  Lesbian couples will seek a male donor or a male couple
>will seek a surrogate mother.  They say that children of gay couples
>differ from heterosexual couples (married or otherwise) in one
>major way:  Children of gay couples are wanted.  How many unwanted
>or accidental children are born in your area each year?
>
>Ok, speak up.  How many heterosexual married people do we have here
>who have no intention of having children?

My wife and I have absolutely no intention of having children. Of course, 
we're also an interracial couple, so many of the folks who oppose same 
sex marriages probably think our marriage should be illegal too.

>  How about those who
>have instead adopted children because they can't naturally?  Or
>sought a male donor or surrogate mother because they can't naturally?
>
>I must have been blindly under the mistaken impression that people
>get married because they love each other and wish to spend their
>lives together in a close commitment.
>
>Anyone?  Why did YOU get married?

You just said it. :-) We got married because we love each other and want 
to spend the rest of our lives together in a committed relationship. 
Furthermore, we wanted to pledge our committment to each other in a 
special ceremony with our family and friends. Since I'm an atheist and my 
wife is an agnostic, we had a wedding performed by a counselor from the 
American Humanist Association on top of Flagstaff Mountain in Boulder, 
with a vegetarian potluck reception and some delicious cheesecakes in 
place of the traditional wedding cake. We wrote our own vows and devised 
our own ceremony. I subsequently became a mail-order minister through the 
Universal Life Church so that I can legally perform freethought weddings 
for other people. 

Gary Swing
Green Party Candidate for
State Representative
District 8, Denver