[swingdjted]

It is harder in some ways to find a date, especially a healthy one if you're gay. Some resort to online options including setting up social events that aren't quite so heavy on the booze as a bar. I'd have to admit though, it would be harder. Despite this, of my straight vs. gay friends, the gays/lesbians seem to be more successful at finding someone. I could speculate one reason or another, but honestly I'm not sure how it became the case.

Taboo isn't really something that is a game changer, and when it is, it usually results in more cases of defiance than compliance when you really think about it, and that could partially explain all the risky multi-partner, unprotected behavior.

I think marriage in general really has been cheapened across the board, but I wouldn't say that homosexual marriages is a reason. I think really the hidden underlying decision is whether or not someone feels a homosexual life-bond is right or wrong based on personal morals and values, not so much on health statistics. Some people have decided that it's just "wrong", after all, Mother Nature designed human sex organs a certain way for a reason. But, I argue that there's more than procreation to a marriage, far more, enough to say that procreation is not the top priority for a marriage, but that's still just my personal opinion.

I have even suggested in conversations (at leas for the sake of discussion) to end all government recognition of marriage. It's just not fair that Renee and I get to enjoy goodies that the non-married don't get. What if someone was born with something that mostly prevents them from being able to find a spouse? What if someone falls so in love with someone, that they can't possibly be with someone else, and then their loved one dies prior to getting married? What if someone just doesn't want to get married?

What about pairs of people that are co-dependent that aren't romantic e.g. brothers, or sisters, or mother-daughter, or room mates, etc. that have no interest in being married? Why can't they get what Renee and I have from the government when they're just as co-dependent as we are? For example, I know a pair of twins, never married, in their 60's, always lived together and shared resources. Both professors at the same college. Why can't they have one insurance policy or tax form that covers both the way a husband could for a wife?

How about in-love, co-habitation couples that refuse to get married because one earns too much money at a job and would make the other ineligible for their enjoyed government cheese for them and their kids? How is that fair to a married couple with a stay-at-home-mom that can't get that cheese? Some states have "common-law" marriage I guess.

How about people that get married for money? Maybe one is terminally ill and wants to give a life insurance policy or pension or other benefits at the expense of the more honest and fair payers-in. Maybe one is in the business of marrying a rich person and then divorcing for keeping half.

Getting rid of government-recognized marriage could actually help solve these kinds of problems, even including the one we've been discussing all along. The marriage would be less focused on bullshit and more on people's own values, morals, religions, and/or beliefs. The rest ideally shouldn't matter anyway. People should marry under their own terms unless the marriage itself poses measurable harm to others. Then it would matter a lot less if two homosexuals were considered married if you were a person that didn't accept it.