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Originally Posted by garysher  Where does the Constitution state that homosexual "marriage" is a right? |
The constitution does not contain some complete and comprehensive list of all rights.
A right is anything you are able to do. The constitution lists certain rights and says, "no law is allowed to take these rights away." But the constitution also says that just because a right isn't listed doesn't mean it can be denied or disparaged.
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Originally Posted by garysher Current marriage law doesn't discriminate on gender. Any man can marry any woman, subject to an identical set of qualifiers. |
According to the 14th amendment, no State shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The equal protection of the laws is violated in two ways:
First, allowing a woman to marry a man, but denying a man that same right is unequal. You may point out that men have rights which women does not have. However, giving two people two different rights is not the same as giving them equality. It is segregation of rights.
For example, if you are denied the right to drink orange juice while another man is denied the right to drink milk, you are not equal to that man. The value of drinking orange juice may seem about equal to the value of drinking milk, but that is not true. The value of those freedoms will differ from person to person.
Second, allowing straight marriage but banning gay marriage discriminates against gay people. Imagine if I allowed worshipping Buddah but banned worshipping Christ. There is no doubt that I would be discriminating against Christians. But technically everyone has the same right to worship Buddah.
The problem is that giving everyone "the same" rights doesn't mean they're equal. If you ban a right in the way Christians want to use it, but allow that same right in the way Buddhists want to use it, then you're discriminating against Christians. If you ban a right in the way gay people want to use it, but allow that same right in the way straight people want to use it, then you're discriminating against gay people. And this shouldn't come as a surprise. Anyone can see that straight people are getting married while gay people are not.
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As you know, the rights enumerated in the US Constitution accrue to individuals, not couples nor any other grouping.
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A couple is nothing more than two people. Would you say "It's not okay to discriminate against a person. But it is okay to discriminate against TWO people?" If one couple has a set of privledges, then another couple should have the same.