Same-Sex Marriage

Of the almost 25,000 items on this site, I can only find 31 that involve M/M sex involving either adults or teens. The numbers for F/F are a bit higher, but many of these stories seem to be written by heterosexual men. What I think these figures suggest is that on this site Ryan is in fact part of a very large majority with regard to sexual predilection. Where Ryan may differ (although I hope not) is in his willingness to tolerate minorities. I still find the idea of same sex marriage a little strange, but when you see the pictures of men who have shared lifelong monogamous loving relationships celebrate the fact that they can openly celebrate their love for one another, surely that cannot be wrong.

If this site was politically focused, or marriage focused, I could see why you'd want to move on. But disagreeing with most of the other users on a social issue that has absolutely nothing to do with the site's topic...I'm not really sure I follow your train of thought.

My views, as I expressed in an earlier post, are not inconsistent with the views expressed by the majority of LSF members who have chosen to post to this thread.

I know from observation that when people have very strong views, those views often have their genesis in childhood, are based on what they perceive as "tradition," and sometimes are religiously based. I have no information to determine if this applies to Ryan so I'll speak only hypothetically. If a child is repeatedly taken to a place of worship, is told there is a loving or perhaps a vengeful God, and hears from the pulpit that certain practices are abhorrent (and if you do abhorrent things, you will go to hell), the child has a good chance of believing it--even internalizing it as the absolute truth. What is considered abhorrent is fluid and can change over time and also depends on the particular faith. A Hindu will hear that the cow is revered and can not be killed--for food for example. A Christian or Jew will not hear this. An orthodox Jew is likely to hear that homosexuality is abhorrent but not so with a reform Jew.

When the child matures, the views formed during childhood may or may not change. In my admittedly limited experience, these views are more likely to change the greater the interaction with people who hold dissimilar views.

I would be curious to know the views of friends and close associates of those probate judges and county clerks in the United States who have decided to "go out of the marriage business" rather than issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian applicants after the Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.

May I ask good sir why you would write such a statement? You have no idea of how most of the other users on this site think or feel on this issue. The SC was a split 5/4 decision, just barely a judgement for one side which likely does reflect the majority of people who are split on this issue as well, I am just not sure what % would go either way. At least for me I ask everyone not to assume I either support or do not support this issue,


I may be dead wrong here Cindy, but when I read this it struck me the assumption was being made that (1) unless one changes their mind on issues as they mature they are not really maturing as they are limited by not associating with those who hold different view points. (2) All Christians and Jews who were raised in a strong faith are limited in their abilities to accept change because of their upbringing?

Sorry Cindy but I disagree, such assumptions if they are what I understand you to say.


Just because anyone has a strong opinion on one issue does not come anywhere near close to indicating their willingness to accept other things such as minorities that some others may reject outright. This issue in my opinion is a issue that spans all majorities and minorities, and whether one accepts or rejects it is entirely up to the individual.

I think it is always a personal choice for anyone to choose whether to support or not any issue. For those who choose not to issue licenses to those who attend such weddings such things are personal and neither side is good or bad, just different and should be respected for their right to choose. That said I know what I think of the issue and again will keep it to myself. I do support Ryan if he chooses to stay or to leave this site, and it be damned if I understand his decision either way, because that is his decision to make.

Because the overwhelming majority of commentators on this thread are in favor of the ruling.

This may not be a representative sample of the site as a whole, but I think its a good representation of the users who are active on the Forum. I also don't think its a stretch to assume that people who are open to exploring their kinks online may, on average, be more tolerant of others who fall outside of the mainstream sexual "norm."

canadianspankee
Hi, CS. If you look at my prior post in this thread, you'll see why this goes beyond whether someone "accepts or rejects" the validity of homosexual marriage. It might be the same if the position of those in support of it was that ONLY homosexual marriages were valid and heterosexual marriage should not be allowed. But that's not the case. Those in support feel it's up to a couple to choose whether they wish to marry someone of the same or opposite sex. Seems pretty reasonable to me, because if you feel homosexuality is wrong.....you don't have to become one or get married to someone of the same sex. Your view IS accepted. However, those not in favor are not merely saying they do not wish to do it, but NO ONE can. Very different position if you ask me.

It's one side saying: "you don't have to agree with me, and I respect your right not to......just don't tell me what I should do...or can or can't do." While the opposing side seems to be saying: "your view is inherently wrong and I want a law saying you can't do it." While I can respect a differing point of view, I tend to bristle at any group using any justification to dictate what another group should do.

CS, the word "matures" in my latest post was designed to mean "advances in age."

You asked whether I believe that "All Christians and Jews who were raised in a strong faith are limited in their abilities to accept change because of their upbringing?" I know specific Christians and Jews who were raised in a strong faith who have accepted change. Likewise, I know others who had cursory exposure to religion as children and their religious identity became stronger as adults.

I think it is problematic if a public official tasked with issuing marriage licenses decides to shut down his or her county's marriage license issuing machinery because of a personal or religious objection to gay/lesbian marriages.

Agree to differ! Also the key to a happy marriage!

I'm not gay, but I'm very happy about the Supreme Court decision. For the record, I am a Christian, and was raised to be anti-homosexual. But, perhaps unlike my parents and the other Christians I've known over the years, I've actually had the opportunity to meet and befriend many LGBT people, and ... I learned that they're people, just like me. There are no more "weirdos" or "perverts" amongst them than there are amongst we straight people.

So when it came up on the ballot in my state (Washington, USA), I voted in favor of same-sex marriage. To me, it wasn't a sexual issue, and it wasn't a moral issue. It was a human rights issue.

It helped that I and the older of my two younger sisters believe that our youngest sister is a closeted-and-in-denial lesbian. My youngest sister is a "Super Christian" (to the point that even our extremely devout mother thinks she's overdoing it and missing the point), and being a lesbian just doesn't fit with her religious views. Meanwhile, both I and the older sister look at our "baby" sister (she was born many years after the two of us) and see a woman who seems to be going out of her way to make herself unattractive to men (gaining a crapload of weight, keeping her hair "butch" cut and dying it blue and green, wearing no makeup, and refusing to wear skirts or dresses). She's almost 38, and I think it's been a couple decades since she went on a date with a guy, but she has a ton of female friends. I remember when she was a teenager, and she was shaping up to be a stunningly beautiful young woman. Now, my "baby" sister outweighs me by at least 100 pounds. (I was going to say 50 pounds, but then I remembered that I've *lost* more than 50 pounds over the last year. For me, "getting fat" meant that I bloated up to 225 pounds. Now I'm back down to under 170, where I should be.)

OTOH, here I am, almost 50 and still unmarried. I have no doubt that there are probably some people in my church who suspect that I might be gay. I actually had a chuckle about that with my pastor a while back. I neglected to mention to him that I'm simply waiting for the right kind of woman. Basically, I'm not going to marry a vanilla :D

I also don't smoke marijuana, or use any other drug (except alcohol and nicotine), but I voted in favor of legalizing marijuana here in Washington. From what I can tell, using marijuana is actually safer than alcohol and tobacco. This was actually on the same state ballot as the same-sex-marriage issue.

LOL...you remind me of the local members of government types who pull a statistic out of anywhere and claim it represents the truth. There are under 20 people on this forum issue and some are repeats, some are against or have not spoken for it either way, but you tell me it represents the majority??? Sorry, but if it is only the ones who have the nerve to talk on such a touchy issue, then we are all in real trouble.

In Alberta Canada who up to 3 weeks before the election this year, a certain party thought they would win and all the polls showed they might at that. On election day the silent majority spoke and that party went from 70+ seats down to 10, they are not even the official opposition. They were however the ones making the most vocal and written noise about how great they were etc after all they had ruled the province for 44 years.

One can make statistics say anything they want, and I know because working as a regional manager for the provincial government I did exactly what you are trying to do. Pull a fact out of such a minor base of supporters that makes everything look real good, but it proves nothing in the end. I learned that lesson the hard way several times.

All I am saying is that none of us can make any assumptions about how the majority or the minority of ones on this site view this issue, and in my opinion, neither should we be asking such a thing.