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Resolved: The United States Federal Government should pass the legislation to Legalize Gay Marriage

Resolved: The United States Federal Government should pass the legislation to Legalize Gay Marriage. Burdens: Under the context of standard debate procedure the Pro holds the burden of proof, and upon upholding that burden the con holds the burden of rejoinder, and, if they offer a counter-solution, the subsequent burden of proof. Framework: For the context of this debate, the issue will be argued in a large context because of all the different points of view associated with the topic. Cases should be structured with a value and with supporting contentions or points of evidence. Round 1: Acceptance, Overview of arguments that will be used 2: Ethical/Moral Implications of Gay Marriage 3: Societal/Political viewpoints towards gay marriage 4: Refutation of opponents arguments and propping up of your own 5: Concluding Statements hitting only already covered arguments, any new arguments made in this section will be considered abuse and should be voted against. At this point it is prudent to begin to outline arguments: First off, some standard definitions: Federal Government: Individuals on a federal level that set up politics in a country (Black's Law Dictionary, 2nd Edition) Legalize: To Make legal or lawful; to confirm or validate what was before void or unlawful; to add the sanction and authority of law to that which before was without or against law (Black's Law Dictionary, 2nd Edition) Gay: Homosexual (Common Knowledge) DISPUTED TERM: Marriage: Marriage, as distinguished from the agreement to marry and from the act of becoming married, Is the civil status of one man and one woman united in law for life, for the discharge to each other and the community of the duties legally incum- bent on those whose association is founded on the distinction of sex.(Black's Law Dictionary, 2nd Edition) Now outlining arguments on two main areas: First: Ethical/Moral Implications of Gay Marriage Value: For this debate I will be upholding the value of nihilism. Nihilism as defined by Merriam-Webster as: a : a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless; and, b : a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truths Voting Criterion: To uphold the value of nihilism I will be using the secondary voting criterion of Pragmatism. Defined by Merriam-Webster as: a practical approach to problems and affairs. To give my opponent proper time to prepare argumentation I will outline my logical flow of argumentation: 1. Establish that many of the barriers to gay marriage are essentially meaningless in any case: a. Moral Values - Disproved through subjectivism and relativism as a basis for establishing a nihilistic argumentation viewpoint; utilize concepts of pragmatism to support that it is impractical to try to formulate a universal moral standard. b. Definition of Marriage - Languages are essentially an invention of mankind made to fit the circumstances under which the words were created; for example, the Inuit have numerous words for snow, which people in more tropical climates do not require. Languages can die and be born and are hardly a universal standard for defining what a civil union (the revised, proposed definition of marriage) really is. c. Religious - return to argument about true meaning of civil union, remind audience that "marriage" was not even existent upon the writing of the bible. Further refute by returning to value of nihilism and referencing the unreliability of faith in establishing lawful societies - as last resort call upon separation of church and state in this democratic, and NOT theocratic, society. 2. Upon establishing canvas devoid of previous moral expectation, establish argument parameter that since typical societal values are meaningless in any case and thus gay marriage should pass simply because it would be more pragmatic to focus on issues that are more prudent to the hegemony of our nation in any case. 3. Clarify arguments of pragmatism and nihilism as the basis for a philosophical understanding of why the passing of gay marriage is a non-issue and not even worth the financial and mental exertion required for a true congressional discussion of such an esoteric topic. Round 2: Societal/Political Issues associated with gay marriage Value: Pragmatism (Same Definition as in first stage of argumentation) Voting Criterion: Manifest Humanism Humanism: a doctrine, attitude, or way of life centered on human interests or values; especially : a philosophy that usually rejects supernaturalism and stresses an individual's dignity and worth and capacity for self-realization through reason (Merriam-Webster) Manifest: The belief that something is inherently obvious and predetermined(Paraphrased from Merriam-Webster) Contentions/Flow of Argumentation 1. Establish the practicality of passing gay marriage as a necessary part of the advancement of mankind and even of our nation. a. The concept of civil union is ultimately an inherent right for human beings. Rather than focusing on "true love" the wishy-wash aspect of this argument must be thrust aside in the pure basic concepts of the "Social Contract" b. While paper and passion are used on this topic the nation is billions of dollars in debt and there are rampant issues in foreign policy and domestic. The fact that the United States Federal Government is occupied by arguing a topic that really is inconsequential in the grand historical scheme of human and societal advancement, it is impractical to argue the unprovable basis that Homosexual Civil Unions are not as legitimate as Heterosexual Civil Unions. c. To advance society, these issues either need to be forgotten or resolved. If mankind is to achieve its destiny of superiority through logical reasoning than issues such as Gay Marriage need to be forgotten or resolved; since the homosexual population of the nation will refuse to concede any points in regards to the legitimacy of their civil union the only logical end to this issue is to pass gay marriage and, in layman's terms, "move on with our lives". 2. Society's Advancement through Legalizing gay Marriage a. The United States has the unique opportunity to be a leader on a social issue rather than a follower i. The United States has earned significant ridicule from its peers on refusing to budge on social issues in its past. For a nation that makes its money on the slogan "Land of the Free and Home of the Brave" it is hypocritical and illogical to bar everyone from having the freedom to marry. ii. In the past the United States has made the mistake of being the last one in the pack of first world nations to legalize various societal expectations of a civil society. Some examples of this include being the last cultured, industrial nation in the world to end slavery, one of the last to legalize the rights of women to vote, women to own property and general, basic rights outlined in the Constitution for White Males, and cross-applying those same basic rights over to African-Americans. b. By being a forerunner on this issue the United States will set the precedent for other nations to resolve their debate on gay marriage and thus be in a favorable position to move on to other issues that are more integral to the advancement of society. 3. After resolving these non-issues it is probable that Domestic policies will be more focused to issues such as Foreign negotiation, Economic Growth and towards a sustainable and favorable standard of living a. POSSIBLE ADVANTAGE: International Cooperation This is the shell of my argumentation. If anyone is willing to coherently and intelligently argue this issue in the context of logical reasoning and without the use of pathetic fallacies such as Ad Hominem I look forward to discussing the philosophical, societal and moral precedents of gay marriage as well as coming up with a creative solution to one of the most irrational things to be arguing about in the modern world.