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Same-Sex Marriage Back In The News
05.19.04
I don't see anything wrong with gay marriage. Everyone should have equal rights. Forty years ago I wouldn't have been able to marry my husband because he is black and I'm white, and someone fought for that to change so that we could be together and married now, so I'm gonna do the same and fight for gay marriage to be allowed.
-Chantelle, 20
Fort Worth, TX
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Restriction on marriage is what gives it definition. Whether it's age restrictions or familial restrictions, these limitations help us define what marriage is. "When a man and a woman, above the age of 18, and not related, who love each other and want to become one in flesh, etc." If we take out the restriction of "between a man and a woman," it will have a domino effect.
-Christian, 18
San Leandro, CA
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If gay marriage becomes legal, it is not going to lead to people marrying animals. Last time I heard, a cow can't say "I do."
-Devon, 19
College Station, TX
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I am a Christian girl that is for gay marriages, because who they are is who they are. You cannot force anyone to follow Christ's preachings. All you can do is be a light -- you are not allowed to judge another person for their sins.
-Kristina, 18
Harrison, OH
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The thing I think people are missing in this argument is not the president forcing religion on people, it is that gay marriage reflects the cultural tide of the country right now. I disagree with sex before marriage, adultery and homosexuality. It's not just about marriage, it's about a lifestyle choice. I don't hate someone because they're gay, I just disagree that they should have the right to get married.
-Chris, 21
Clifton Park, NY
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Our country needs to stop making conservative groups look like the bad guys because they don't accept gay marriage. The fact is the majority of the country sides more with conservative thinking than thinking that is obsessed with being tolerant and open to every possible lifestyle.
-David, 20
Tulsa, OK
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Too many people have the idea that civil unions and marriage are the same thing. They are not. This debate is about the government recognizing gay couples as 100 percent equal to their straight counterparts. It's also not about forcing gay marriages on churches and other religious organizations that want no part of them. It's simply about the government affording equal rights to all Americans.
-Adam, 19
Minneapolis, MN
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Democracy allows equal rights to all, so why are homosexuals still not given those rights? This country might have been built on religion, but if you can't say God in school and people want it out of the Pledge of Allegiance, then why should He prevent gay people from marrying?
-Kelly, 18
Ames, IA
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I support gay marriage. Even though I go to church, I think that it is the person's choice, not society's.
-Zach, 16
Warner Robins, GA
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People worried about the sanctity of marriage are a little too late. The sanctity is gone, and even if it were still here, love should be the sanctity of marriage.
-Missy, 20
Lexington, MA
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I am a gay male, but I don't think "marriage" is the right word for it. A union of love is for us.
-Joshua, 21
Boothwyn, PA
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It's not meant to be the church's decision on who gets married. If it were, then we would have to be married in a church, and not by a justice of the peace or even in the courthouse.
-Jamie, 27
Copperas Cove, TX
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Love is blind. If you are lucky enough to find someone you love and who loves you back, then you deserve to fight for that and that person you love.
-Jen, 19
New York, NY
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The government shouldn't try to censor gay couples with the Constitution. If the government wants separation of church and state, then it needs to completely separate it. And if the government leaves religion out of the equation, there is no reason to oppose gay marriage.
-Suzy, 21
Chicago, IL
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All those opposed to gay marriage say that we have to preserve the "sanctity" of marriage. In a country where the divorce rate is 50 percent and straight folk get married three and four times, I'd say that the "sanctity" of marriage has already been destroyed.
-Jennifer, 22
Chattanooga, TN
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You can have your own opinion on whether gays and lesbians should be able to get married, but the bottom line is separation of church and state makes your view invalid in the political world. Let us get married. There is no reason not to.
-Ryan, 19
New York, NY
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Marriage is not a right. It is a civil privilege that requires a license in most any country. To love is a right. As a gay man, I don't want anyone telling me who to love. But marriage is and must remain a union between a man and woman.
-Benjamin, 32
Los Angeles, CA
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It's hard to argue on the topic of gay marriage, considering the word "marriage" has a religious origin. In my opinion the government should grant civil unions, but they should carry all the same benefits as a marriage. The United States continues to merge church and state closer and closer when most people in this country aren't even members of the religion we were founded on. That's not a bad thing, but the beauty of our country is our freedoms. We all should be allowed that.
-Greg, 28
Jacksonville, FL
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Violating Geneva Conventions?
According to the Geneva Conventions the only thing I see the U.S. has done wrong is publishing the pictures of POWs. I think it's absolutely ridiculous how much attention this has gotten and how rules of interrogation have changed since then. We are dealing with terrorists who are not playing by the rules, and yet we go easy on them.
-Greg, 28
Jacksonville, FL
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When the United States signed the Geneva Conventions, we agreed to shelter, feed and keep POWs away from all harmful diseases, to make sure they have medical attention and to not humiliate them in any way. American soldiers were also mistreated, but that does not give us any good reason to retaliate in the way that we did. Two wrongs don't make one right.
-Jenn, 17
Jacksonville, FL
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I think that the U.S. has violated the Geneva Conventions. I just can't believe that we as the U.S. expect other countries to follow our example. How can we judge other countries for their crimes when we lie, invade and hurt other peoples and countries?
-Shawn, 18
Dayton, OH
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I find it ironic and disturbing that we are brutally humiliating Iraqi prisoners in a former torture center used by Saddam Hussein. If this does not violate the Geneva Conventions, I don't know what will.
-Margaret, 19
Kensington, MD
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What About The Abuse Of Iraqi Prisoners?
What was done to the contractors in Fallujah was horrible, and many people said so. The Iraqi POW abuse is a big deal (and in a lot of ways a bigger deal) because those who were performing the abuse were official representatives of the United States. If we want to be the greatest country in the world and have some kind of moral authority, then we are held to a higher standard.
-Tim, 20
Columbia, MO
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The media shouldn't have broadcasted all those pictures on TV, they should have let the military take care of it. Because now that everyone knows about it, especially the Iraqis, any American that they capture, they will be sure to brutally kill them. I support Bush, and this isn't to be blamed on him. I think he has handled a lot of things better than some of us. We should show a little more respect and support. He's only doing what he feels is best.
-Lyndsey, 17
Waynesboro, GA
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America claims to take the morally superior road, as opposed to terrorists. If we act like this, torturing prisoners, then we cannot expect others to behave better than us. We have not talked to many of the Iraqi people -- the educated people who are capable of running their country. We need to talk to them and see how they see the situation. They give us the best idea of how America and the West is seen and how we can change that image.
-Amanda, 20
Houston, TX
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By breaking the conventions' rules for humanity, our troops' leaders have lowered us to the level of terrorists. The tortures have even been carried out in the same prisons as Saddam's monstrosities. What a shining example of how fair democracy is supposed to be.
-Jay, 18
Urmom, IA
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Stop seeing this as a conspiracy and see it for what it is: A few stupid soldiers doing something illegal.
-Debbie, 34
Watervliet, NY
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I think what the U.S. soldiers did to Iraqi POWs is appalling. Not only do they represent our country in doing what they did and, therefore, cast even more hatred on us than when the war started, but they give the Iraqis another reason to kill our innocent. It is especially hypocritical for our commander in chief to suggest that we need to spread democracy in Iraq while we are humiliating and torturing people in the same prison where thousands of innocent Iraqis were murdered and tortured by Saddam Hussein.
-Sarah, 17
Philadelphia, PA
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The mistreatment of Iraq POWs is a big deal because it reflects back on all Americans. The last thing we need is to add more fuel to the fire of people who hate America. The mistreatment of prisoners is un-American; it's disgusting. The military people who participated should be court-martialed, and Rumsfeld should be fired.
-Johanna, 20
Lemoore, CA
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This POW thing is a horrific and absolutely stupid thing that our soldiers did. Not only does it portray all Americans as ignorant, stupid and uncaring, but it now has endangered our soldiers overseas even more.
-Kate, 16
Milwaukee, WI
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The reason that it is such a big deal is because we portray ourselves as "good" and them as "evil." We claim that we are relieving the Iraqis from "torture chambers" and "rape rooms" when it just seems to me that we are making more.
-Ian, 17
Providence, RI
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Last time I checked, we were supposed to be the good guys helping them come out from a dictatorship, not raping them of their dignity.
-Jeff, 20
Toledo, OH
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Someone who tries to justify the treatment of Iraqi prisoners by how the Iraqis have treated American civilians fails too see that America isn't a terrorist faction and that these actions are unacceptable.
-Jeff, 20
Toledo, OH
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Someone who tries to justify the treatment of Iraqi prisoners by how the Iraqis have treated American civilians fails too see that America isn't a terrorist faction and that these actions are unacceptable.
-Jeff, 20
Toledo, OH
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The way other countries run their governments is none of our business. We are not the world's police, and I do not think we should try to be. If Bush wants to stop terrorism and make us safe in our own country and around the world, then just maybe he should think twice about waging war. This war isn't making us any safer. If fact, I believe it's quite the opposite.
-Joy, 20
Dayton, OH
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Personally, I find the fact that George W. Bush is willing to stand up for what he believes is right, no matter what anyone (even some Americans) thinks about him, is amazing. It's how the president of this country should lead. He stands strong and steadfast in the face of many adversities. That is what our country has been missing. And that weakness from the past is why many terrorists have taken the liberty to stand against us where normally they were too scared to even entertain such a thought.
-Matt, 24
Springdale, AR
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Even if Arab countries fail to apologize for their mistreatments of U.S. soldiers and civilians, it is still America's responsibility to uphold a higher sense of morality and apologize for our responsibility in the abuses in Abu Ghraib.
-Cory, 18
Great Falls, MT
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I just got back from Iraq a month ago. True, there are people there, a small part, that do not want us there. The majority of the country praises U.S. troops for the freedom granted them. The rest of us should be proud not only of the work we have done in Iraq, but in Afghanistan in breaking down terrorist support.
-Daniel, 23
Ft. Hood, TX
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I was in the Air Force for six years, and I am tired of people back here criticizing our government about our troops being over there. I know many people that are over in Iraq right now, and they think it's a good cause. Saddam needed to be overthrown, plain and simple. Fifty years from now, when we look at the state of the Middle East, there will be no question this was the right thing for the world and our future generations.
-Chris, 24
Miamisburg, OH
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America needs to stop sticking its nose where it doesn't belong and maybe start spending some of its budget trying to solve the problems back home. Instead of answering a terrorist attack with war, try and find out why this happened in the first place and maybe prevent one from happening again.
-Nik, 18
West Lafayette, IN
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Saddam is similar to Hitler. Women were raped, civilians tortured, etc. Why is Bush knocked for pursuing Iraq? Clinton was praised and admired for bombing the smitherines out of Bosnia.
-Steve, 21
Kansas City, MO
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Calling It Straight?
Your choice of headlines is so clearly anti-Bush it is ridiculous. Please at least give each party a fair and equal chance. If you want to present a fair and balanced front, you have to change.
-Steve, 19
Livermore, CA
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Hey MTV: Drive out to the middle of Kansas and ask someone what they think instead of standing on a street corner in the bastion of liberalism, New York. MTV does not represent my voice.
-Jack, 20
Thibodaux, LA
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This two-party system is unfair and ridiculous. Why are only two parties represented at the convention? MTV, come on. You can do better than that.
-Rosalie, 22
Glendora, CA
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