Marriage is not entered into as an expectation of gaining respect. If Gays believe they will gain respect by being married is fallacious imaginings. All people deserve respect including practicing homosexuals.

However being married is not going to raise their personal level of social respect one iota than from whom they are currently as a person. Heterosexual persons social respect is not raised in society by their being married it is their individual character that gives them social respect

..."Could 2 keyholes ever open a house with no key "?...

Or the inverse:

...“Could two keys ever open a house with no keyholes”?...

...No...A key and a keyhole should only cross the threshold John. Your sad attempt to legitimise the illegitimate is a failure fortunately.

John: great piece, well written and persuasive.
Helen

So: you're argument is: because there are a large number of divorces, we should completely transform and redefine the concept of marriage?

Very sold argument. Reminds me of: "because there are some bad fathers, the State should be able to ignore a child's right to a father and deliberately place children in an environment without a father".

Look. For centuries societies have recognised marriage as a special concept involving commitment by a man and a woman into a committed relationship for the benefit of children. All the talk of 'rights', 'equality', 'the UN', etc is somewhat meaningless in this context. Are you saying that overall society has finally woken up and recognised that based on the views of a loud, well-off minority, we've had it completely wrong? If so, you need to present persuasive argument to make the case, not simply some high-level observations and emotions.

Blaise Joseph's article involved facts, logic and argument. Yours was simply waffle and mush.

Your argument might hold if the basis for marriage were "respect" - but it is not. Further, marriage is not the necessary recognition of a person's dignity or autonomy, as you suggest. The premises you have chosen to rely upon do not support your conclusions, at least not when looked at in a logical way. A good text on the anthropological foundations of marriage would not be amiss.

AMCE,

I'd suggest a that a marriage without respect would be a very poor marriage indeed. And I'd argue that the basis for equality - which is, after all, what we're talking about here - is respect. Respect for our fellow men, and respect for the fact that we're all just people and that our commonalities far outweigh our differences.