Yes; a specious argument in my view. You ought to save your energy for a stronger argument, IMHO. Take your time and contemplate these things. They are NOT superficial problems, they affect every moment of our lives. As Escalante told his calculus students, who were beefing;

"You figure who cares if we screw up this mathematical course, --don't you? I'm telling you, I don't want you screwing up your whole lives ! Give it all you've got now !"

Gays and lesbians have chosen to screw up not only their own lives. They'll screw up all of western society, because they won't TRY to live correctly.

Tumbler,

"Since gays and lesbians cohabit, there's no need for a marriage..."

From a religious viewpoint, a marriage is created by taking oaths before God.  Doing so allows you to:

Cohabit, have sex and procreate with your partner all within the laws of the church.

From a legal standpoint, a marriage is created by signing a marriage license.  Doing so allows you to:

• File joint income tax returns with the IRS and state taxing authorities.
• Create a "family partnership" under federal tax laws, which allow you to divide business income among family members.
• Inherit a share of your spouse's estate.
• Receive an exemption from both estate taxes and gift taxes for all property you give or leave to your spouse.
• Create life estate trusts that are restricted to married couples, including QTIP trusts, QDOT trusts and marital deduction trusts.
• Obtain priority if a conservator needs to be appointed for your spouse - that is, someone to make financial and/or medical decisions on your spouse's behalf.
• Receive Social Security, Medicare and disability benefits for spouses.
• Receive veterans' and military benefits for spouses, such as those for education, medical care, or special loans.
• Receive public assistance benefits.
• Obtain insurance benefits through a spouse's employer.
• Take family leave to care for your spouse during an illness.
• Receive wages, workers' compensation, and retirement plan benefits for a deceased spouse.
• Take bereavement leave if your spouse or one of your spouse's close relatives dies.
• Visit your spouse in a hospital intensive care unit or during restricted visiting hours in other parts of a medical facitily.
• Make medical decisions for your spouse if he or she becomes incapacitated and unable to express wishes for treatment.
• Consent to after-death examinations and procedures.
• Making burial or other final arrangements.
• File for stepparent or joint adoption.
• Apply for joint foster care rights.
• Receive equitable division of property if you divorce.
• Receive spousal or child support, child custody, and visitation if you divorce.
• Live in neighborhoods zoned for "families only".
• Automatically renew leases signed by your spouse.
• Receive family rates for health, homeowners', auto, and other types of insurance.
• Receive tuition discounts and permission to use school facilities.
• Other consumer discounts and incentives offered only to married couples or families.
• Sue a third person for wrongful death of your spouse and loss of intimacy.
• Sue a third person for offenses that interfere with the success of your marriage, such as alienation of affection and criminal conversation (these laws are only available in a few states).
• Claim the marital communications privilege, which means a court can't force you to disclose the contents of confidential communications between you and your spouse during marriage.
• Receive crime victims' recovery benefits if your spouse is the victim of a crime.
• Obtain immigration and residency benefits for noncitizen spouse.
• Visitation rights in jails and other places where visitors are restricted to immediate family.

Many of these rights do NOT apply to same-sex marriages, domestic partnerships or civil unions.

You ask why same-sex marriage should be recognized lawfully?  Because, without taking religious morality into consideration, same-sex couples deserve these rights the same as any other person living in the United States of America.

Dirk

"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."  - Plato

Dirk, I am not going to post links to prove the following, but:

"Divorce is wrong because it can severely hurt children involved."

True, but sometimes , couples staying together inflict far more harm on their children.

Consuming alcohol in small amounts is beneficial to us.

"Smoking cigarettes is tantamount to suicide.  Not to mention the second-hand smoke children living in those homes are exposed to.  Should we make laws against that? "

I live in GA. We have many laws that regulate where people can smoke and if they are allowed to smoke. And incidentally--I am not a smoker--but a careful study of the WHO findings , which are in the WHO report but not n the MSM report blows a giant hole in the SHS theory. I do not doubt that SHS is harmful but not in the "scare" way in which we have been informed.

"Where is the victim in consensual gay sex?" In a legal worldly legal sense, there is no victim.

To go directly to your premise, except for the children of divorced parents, there is no victim in three of the four example above. (And divorce depends upon each situation). People make themselves victims. Would you prevent  me from enjoying a glass of wine because there are alcoholics in the world?? And on and on.

I am not challenging your position on homosexuality in this post. I am challenging your logic.

Please notice I have said nothing negative re: homosexuality in this post.

Gays & lesbians are not outlawed. They already enjoy equal rights They are completely entitled to form households under civil union. Nobody is persecuting them.

They aren't married because marriage is between a male and female couple. We heteros are married and they also can be married, legally. A Lesbian can marry any single man she chooses, legally. A gay can marry any single woman (of age) he chooses. As such, they share my civil right to marry. Nobody's stopping them or fining or jailing them for living in same-sex unions, Dirk.

No one makes a crime out of this, so how do you bring "victims" into this equation?

It has nothing to do with being consistent and everything to do with being realistic.

The major flaw in my original argument is that I left it open to people who would compare same-sex marriage to murder, rape, theft, etc.  In my opinion, those people are idiots.

The first error was mine.  I should have specified that I was referring, in particular, to "religious-based" morals.

The second problem was someone (disingenuously might I add), asserting that my argument was that morals of ANY KIND can not dictate laws.  Again, I will take the blame as I consider it common sense that many of our laws are based on morals.

Speaking of consistency...let's let our religious morality decide who deserves to enjoy certain rights and who doesn't.  That mentality is about as liberal as it comes in my opinion.

Dirk

"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."  - Plato