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I can't see why conservatives don't support same-sex marriage as well
as different-sex marriage. It's a matter of faith and the
Constitutional protections it enjoys.
You're married if your church says that you're married. The state has
to honor that or else it is at odds with the constitution. How would
it be if the state could choose which faiths can marry people and
which cannot? It would violate the First Amendment ("Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof"). It would also violate
the Fourteenth Amendment (Section 1, "No state shall ... deny to
any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the
laws").
Another consequence of the First Amendment is that the state can't
compel anyone to practice any religion. For that reason, the state
has to offer the civil equivalent of marriage to anyone who can't or
won't get married in a church.
The state offers legal protection and benefits to married people. It
has to offer them to all married people or violate the First and
Fourteenth Amendments. It can't choose by denomination or lack
thereof (First Amendment) and it can't choose arbitrarily (Fourteenth
Amendment).
Where does that leave us? You can get married by the rules of the
faith of your choice, if one will have you, or you can get married by
the state. Once you're married, you have all of the rights and
responsibilities that all married people have.
Here are two denominations that support same-sex marriage:
More are listed at Partners Task Force for Gay & Lesbian Couples.
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