Marriage

I was watching a show on polygamy a few nights ago, and decided It would be an awesome topic for my blog. As I was thinking about what to write, I started thinking about gay marriage and marriage in general, so I decided to mix it all together into just one entry.

Let’s begin with polygamy. I think the whole idea is a little bit strange. I don’t think it is really my cup of tea as I don’t think I could handle the jealousy aspect of things. Also, I am happily married, but it I got to admit, there are some days when I really feel like kicking my husband out of the house for a few hours so that I can get some me time. I could imagine going crazy if I had to co-exist with more than one spouse. That being said, why is it that so many people have trouble with it? I just don’t see how other people being in a polygamist marriage negatively affect me. Would I be afraid of having kids that want to become polygamist? Well, I don’t think I would encourage them to, but as long as the marriage is between consenting adults, I don’t see why not. People would try to argue that they end up having so many kids and depending on welfare and stuff…but there are also tons of monogamist couples out there that have a million kids they cannot afford. Plus, if you want to talk economics of polygamy, let’s take a look at the following. Recently I read that the average cost of maintaining a prisoner for a year is between 30 and 40 thousand dollars. This polygamy show that I was watching on TV has one husband and 4 wives. They were under investigation for polygamy in Utah and they left because they could end up serving up to 20 years in prison for the husband and 5 years for each wife. That ends up being 40 years of prison total. Let’s say that because of the nature of the crime, they end up costing only 20,000 a year (not a max security prison), well, that costs tax payers a total of 800,000 dollars. Not to mention that they have a combined total of 16 kids all of which are underage therefore would end up being taken care of by child services. It just doesn’t make any sense. Switching back to the philosophical aspect of things, I was under the impression that there was a separation between church and government, but I cannot find any non-religious reason why polygamy should be illegal (unless the marriages are not between CONSENTING ADULTS)

Now, what about gay marriages? Well, a lot of the same arguments can be used in this case. How does it affect me negatively? No idea. Would I want to have a gay child? Would not encourage it, mostly because I would know their life would be a lot harder than if they were straight, but I also think there is nothing I could do about it, after all, I think being gay is not a choice, but part of nature. For all of those who disagree with this last statement, I have actually seen two male dogs having sex, therefore it does happen, plus, if we go about what is natural by what we see in other animal species, then marriage is unnatural because very few species actually mate for life...I forgot where I was going with this… anyways, I would still love my kids the same if they were gay and I would not be one of those parents who would not let my kids play with the kids of a gay couple because that is just mean. However, the biggest argument I have about same-sex marriage is that people fail to see what gay people are asking for. People keep going on about the institution of marriage being historically between a man and a woman…blah blah blah…. Well, then call it something different. Call it a partnership or whatever else you would like it to be named, but make sure gay couples who enter into an agreement that is equivalent to a marriage agreement are afforded the same rights than a married couple. This includes being able to visit their loved ones at the hospital when they get sick, being able to make medical decisions for them if they become incapacitated, being able to make funeral arrangements for them and being able to inherit a share of their estate after their death, adding them to their insurance plans as their spouses… and many many more. Also, if we allow same-sex couples adopt, we would be giving a lot of kids the opportunity to grown and thrive in a loving family.

Anyways, I know it is not a lot of new insight into any of these subjects, but I guess I just wanted to put it up in writing. Plus I secretly hope that one of these days someone who completely disagrees with me writes a comment and gives me the opportunity to have a very open (but hopefully respectful) argument about these things. It could give me an insight on why people disagree with things I agree with (and vv)