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I believe this sub-thread came from my #74, which follows:

The great majority of those who are strongly opposed to gay marriage are motivated by their religious beliefs.

All the "reasons" and "statistics" they cite are really just a cover to hide the true basis for their opposition. -WackyKat

I've got a statistic. Number of homosexual unions which has produced a child: zero. -NutCrackerBoy

What I meant was to highlight the original reason for government's involvement in marriage: to protect the children that naturally come from the sexual union of one man and one woman.

I personally don't use the bioligical argument when defending my stance against gay marriage. -mcg1969

I don't wish to quibble about artificial semination. A repeated fallacy of the anti-traditional-marriage folks is to cite individual exceptions as if they negate the broad sweep. Men and women procreate, and the state, for the good of civilization, involves itself. Without marriage law, chaos would likely have resulted from men abdicating their responsibilities to their wives and children.

The "biological argument" is a generalization yes, but a profoundly true and important one.

It would seem one of the purposes of marriage might be security and property distribution. It gave security for women and a method to legally ensure their residence etc since men were living longer and women weren't working.

I think the traditional argument which is commonly mentioned on these threads doesn't hold much sway. The age requirements and definition of marriage has changed over the years and in various cultures. Hard to rely on the good old days.

I also don't think I would agree that marriage is under "attack" because more people want to do it. Seem to me that's a good sign.

The "biological argument" is a generalization yes, but a profoundly true and important one.

I don't deny this. I guess I should clarify and say that I don't use the specific biological argument that only a man and a woman can physically produce a child. Rather, I use the more general argument that the ideal family structure for the raising of a child is a stable marriage between a man and a woman. This argument certainly has a common-sense biological basis, but since it also has sociological and psychological support it still applies even when the purely bioligical does not---sperm donation, surrogate motherhood, adoption, and so forth (even cloning, if that ever becomes possible).