Slippery Slope

If we allow same-gender marriages, they will use this law to allow polygamy, marriage to minors or animals.

Let's stick to the issue and not deny rights to a huge number of families because of issues that have nothing to do with this law. There is a law that prohibits polygamy, so if that is your only concern then you can rest assured. Not one state or country that allows same-gender marriage has modified their laws to allow marriage to multiple spouses, children or animals. It's insulting to compare love and lifelong commitment between two consenting adults to pedophiles and bestiality.

Two Parent Studies

Every study indicates that children grow up best if they have a mother and a father - Any other family relationship is bad for kids.

Studies show that children are better off, and more protected if they have two legal parents to care for them and be responsible for them. According to the 2000 census there were over 1,000,000 children living in same-sex households and now that number has increased very significantly. This law would allow these children to have legally married parents and by denying same-gender marriage, we're denying those children legally married parents. Which do you think would be better for these children?

Majority Vote

Most people don't want this - people fought for the democratic right to allow people to vote on important issues like this.

In America, we support everyone's rights even if they are in the minority... our people in the service fought for that.

Judgments vs. Law

We don't want a few activist judges making decisions that go against what most people want in the state.

Senate bill 935 is not a court case, so the decision about this legislation is not going to be made in court. It is the job of the legislature to represent the rights of all people and to be sure no one is discriminated against.

Civil Unions

Gays should settle for Civil Unions where Pennsylvania creates a state law offering all the same rights and benefits to gay couples as married couples have. This way everybody would be happy

If you examine each state that allows civil unions, or any type of "separate but equal" situations, you'll find many examples, where equality is a myth. Even if the national DOMA law is repealed, Civil Unions will not be recognized for federal rights and benefits. Civil Unions is similar to saying you can ride on the bus, but you have to ride in the back. It creates a 2nd class citizen status.

Gay Choice

This isn't like race or ethnic discrimination, gay people can change. They aren't being discriminated against because they can marry people of the opposite sex.

Every reputable mental and physical health agency and society in the US finds that sexual orientation is inherent. Even if people can choose at some level, people are not given rights in this country because they can't choose to be different - what if they could, what if a person could choose not to be Black, would you then take their rights away because they chose not to change their color to white? After all, people can choose their religion, and we don't discriminate based on that choice. We don't give people rights because they can't choose, we give them rights because all citizens are supposed to have equal rights in this country.

Discrimination against Churches

Religious institutions like Catholic adoption agencies will be discriminated against if marriage equality passes. Adoption Agencies in Massachusetts closed. In New Jersey a church was sued because they wouldn't let a gay couple get married on their land. This legislation would infringe on religious freedom.

These religious agencies were offering services to the entire pubic and they broke the anti-discrimination law of the state, not the marriage law. All businesses have to follow the laws of the state regarding discrimination; they would not be allowed to discriminate against Jews or African Americans either. However, regarding their churches, actual church efforts are protected by the Constitution. No church will be required to marry anyone they don't want to, just as they have never been expected in the past to marry people outside of their faith or divorced people. In fact, SB 935 has a special provision that states no church will be required to perform a marriage that it does not support.

There are many churches that recognize same-gender marriage. These churches are currently being discriminated against such that their definition of marriage is ignored while other religious definitions dictate civil law.

Historic Change

Why should a small number of radical people in the state totally change the definition that every Judeo Christian institution and the majority of people have accepted for centuries?

There have been many changes to marriage law and civil rights law in this country. Only a few decades ago, interracial couples were prevented from marriage.

Marriage is for Procreation

Marriage exists in society for people to have children, and gay people can't have children so they don't need marriage.

Many married heterosexual couples don't have kids. There are many gay couples that do have children.

School Teachings

If homosexual marriage is legal, then schools will be required to teach that homosexuality is normal. Children will be forced to learn about homosexuality in kindergarten. A teacher in California invited her students to her gay marriage ceremony. It will infringe on the moral teaching of parents whose religion views homosexuality as sin.

This law has nothing to do with what schools may or may not teach.

Pedophiles

If homosexuals can marry, then it will hurt children. Homosexuals will get to adopt children and they are much more likely to be pedophiles.

Child abuse happens in biological families. Meanwhile self identified gay males are far less likely to abuse children than straight males and the instances of abuse by lesbians is almost non-existent. A child's biological father is the most likely person to abuse him or her. But that is no reason to deny straight men the right to be parents. 60% of PA adoption agencies allow gay people to adopt children, and even more foster agencies do. Remember that these children were all once a product of an opposite sex relationship that didn't work out. We should be helping these same-gender families by allowing them the legal right to marry.

Sweden

Statistics show that in Sweden when they made gay marriage legal, less heterosexuals got married each year.

Actually there are no statistics that show that. In reality, marriage in Sweden began to last longer when same-gender marriage was introduced there. In Massachusetts, which instituted same-gender marriage five years ago, fewer people have divorced. No married couple has stated they broke up because a couple of women in the neighborhood got married.

Rights without Marriage

Gays can get the same rights with wills and legal papers.

No they can't. An opposite sex couples gets nearly 700 state rights by paying a $35 marriage license fee, but even hundreds of dollars in wills, powers of attorney, parenting agreements, trusts etc. can't come close to even a handful of these 700 rights.

Cost to Small Business

The health and pension benefits will drive small businesses out of business and raise taxes in the state

Actually, benefits like this cost very little. It's denying health care to people that ultimately costs taxpayers money. - Pensions are paid into a fund by workers to protect their own families, it's unfair that that only applies to the families of some of the workers.

Unnatural

There is no homosexuality in nature - it's unnatural.

There are many instances of homosexuality in nature including a couple of males that are raising a baby penguin that was thrown out of its biological mother's nest. What we are talking about are real families who need to have the same rights as other families.

Defending the Sanctity of Marriage

Recognizing gay marriage demeans real marriage.

The Ward and June Cleaver white middle class family with two kids only reflects 14% of families in the US. What we really see in this country are all different types of families. Single parent households, extended families with older relatives living in the home, blended families with step children and remarried parents, mixed race families, families with foster kids or adopted kids and yes, same-gender families. It's pretty un-American to suggest that only one type of family is good and all the rest are inferior. Marriage laws not only confer rights, they confer responsibilities, and they exist to help strengthen families. It's narrow to suggest these laws are only there to support a family model that only represents 14% of the population.

The United States offers freedom of religion and civil equality. Defending the sanctity of marriage is a religious argument, and asks the government to deny the religious freedom and civil equality to some citizens based on the religious beliefs of others.