jackace: Did you even read what you quoted? Based on your name calling and the overall tone of your posts I think your temper might have got the best of you.
M: I did point out to him the likely reasons, that he has, like a bigot, unexamined and irrational assumptions, in his case, namely, that more intelligence is better than less, that he is more intelligent, and that in combination, this equals a natural right to look down on you. He has not taken into account the possibility that if he were even more intelligent still, he would realize there is nothing about intelligence that permits looking down on others. He does not see that that conclusion is not drawn from intelligence but from a feeling of inferiority that is looking for a place to feel superior.
j: I agreed that my example of polygamy is not exactly the same as your example for gay marriage, and that the polygamy argument probably doesn't belong under the civil rights topic.
M: Probably is maybe a bit weak. I think the logic is clear there. It does not belong there at all. Further, I would say that they are not the same argument for other reasons.
j: I then said polygamist could argue they are being discriminated against because of their religion. Which would mean the legal restriction limiting the number of people someone can marry would be violating their 1st Amendment rights.
M: This, however, would not matter as one cannot, for example, practice human sacrifice as a part of ones religion. So claiming it to be religious in nature would not be sufficient to win anything.
J: Both groups however are wanting the same thing. They want a present restriction on marriage removed because they believe it violates one of their rights.
M: Both want the same thing in regards to wanting restrictions removed, but because the restrictions are not the same and not fixed in the same legal concepts, they do not want the same thing. Gays want a gender discriminating restriction removed and who knows the rest. It would be like saying I want salt in my food and you don't want salt in your food is the same thing, desires.
j: Which then gets back to my original topic which is, if large groups of people have no problem standing up for 1 group, then why do some of those very same people refuse to stand up for another group who is wanting to accomplish the same thing? In fact some of those very same people argue against the second group.
M: In the first place there is no large group arguing for polygamy so there is also not much in the way of active opposition and secondly, it isn't the same thing because salt and not desire is the essence of the matter.
The state has determined there is a state interest in how many people you can marry. This goes from income tax law to cult behavior to the stability of social relations, etc. This forum should tell you the disaster that would result given a lot of males running around with nobody to fuck.