Gay Rights - Why is this an issue?

[rocketpig]

akuma587 said:

rocketpig said:

d21lewis said:
I say we forget our illogical biases (sexual orientation, sexual preferences, race, etc.) and create some new totally outlandish reasons to discriminate.

Humanity has already been doing that for years. All one has to do is look at what the Belgians did in Rwanda with the creation of the Tutsi caste to see an example of illogical biases at work.

I doubt I will ever understand why people care so much about what others do in their free time or in their bedroom. Today, it's gay people. Tomorrow, who knows? Could be me.

One thing I do respect though is the church's ability to protest gay unions. While I don't agree with it, any infringement on church rights should be respected when (not if) homosexuals are granted the same rights as the rest of us. No church should be forced to accept something they believe to be fundamentally wrong (no matter how fiercely I disagree with them on it).

This is too often a red herring issue is the problem.  You don't have cases of gay people showing up to churches demanding to be married.  If a church wants to do that, it is fine.  But the government has in no cases forced a church to do so.  Besides, gay people have an alternate venue through the state which is just as good.

Not to mention churches have pissed off gay people a long time ago, so its not like very many gay people are religious to begin with.

I hear this cited pretty frequently as a reason to be against gay marriage when it is just an illusory issue.

Obviously, I'm not in the group of "let's keep gay marriage illegal because then churches will be forced to marry gays" camp. On the other side of the coin, I'm not above expecting people to, at some point, demand some church concession on the subject, which I think is equally wrong.

It's not unheard of. Roughly thirty years ago, the IRS was threatening to remove the Mormon Church's tax exemption due to their "institutionalized racism".

Who's to say that in 20 years the government won't try the same thing if, say, the Lutheran Church doesn't allow gay marriage or gay ministers?

It's not a red herring. It's a real concern. Both sides deserve to have their rights protected.