Why gay marriage is NOT a moral wrong; it IS a civil right

(Long rant ahead folks, please bear with me, it's just for this post)

Yesterday, Judge Walker had decided to lift the ban on gay marriage in California, effective on August 18. I was informed of the upcoming ruling on SLUniverse, where I also came upon a link to CNN's live streaming coverage of the ruling at the courthouse steps.

While watching the streaming video, I(as well as some others) noticed several signs held up, obviously from the Pro-Prop8 side. I will debunk these signs below.

All three signs show the bigotry of the Prop8 supporters in several ways. First, "Resist Judicial Tyranny" is just plain scared propaganda because there was no judicial tyranny whatsoever in Walker's over 130 page ruling. He painstakingly went over all the evidence and overwhelmingly found that, for example, that gay marriages cause no harm whatsoever to the institution of marriage, to children or even society. Even the defense's witnesses and experts agreed with that. What tyranny is it when you appear in a court of law, fail to bring enough significant evidence to support your claims, then lose the case due to that failure? It would be tyranny if Judge Walker ruled without going over the evidence in the ruling.

Then there's "Judge Mocks God". Do they really want to go there? Do they really want to stand up in a court of law and state Leviticus and Deuteronomy defines marriage? Even putting aside the obvious church/state separation blocker, gay activists can use Leviticus and Deuteronomy(and a dose of Mark too) against itself¹:

• If it is discovered that a bride is not a virgin, the Bible demands that she be executed by stoning immediately. Deuteronomy 22:13-21
• If a married person has sex with someone else’s husband or wife, the Bible commands that both adulterers be stoned to death. Deuteronomy 22:22
• Divorce is strictly forbidden in both Testaments, as is remarriage of anyone who has been divorced. Mark 10:1-12
• The Bible forbids a married couple from having sexual intercourse during a woman’s period. If they disobey, both shall be executed.Leviticus 18:19
• If a man dies childless, his widow is ordered by biblical law to have intercourse with each of his brothers in turn until she bears her deceased husband a male heir. Mark 12:18-27
• If a man gets into a fight with another man and his wife seeks to rescue her husband by grabbing the enemy’s genitals, her hand shall be cut off and no pity shall be shown her. Deuteronomy 25:11-12 

While these verses deal with heterosexual marriages, it clearly shows the very bigoted, hateful and repressive attitude towards women(stoning, execution, cutting off of hands, forbidding of divorce and remarriage, etc). These are examples of why the separation of church and state has been such a demonstrable benefit to the United States and other countries that have adopted a similar policy. We've learned that such religious edicts are truly backwards.

And finally, there's "A moral wrong cannot be a civil right". The obvious question I can raise is "What makes the marriage of a gay couple immoral"? The answer, invariably and inevitably, always leads to Leviticus 18:22 - "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable". As I shown above, the Bible and religion cannot claim moral authority, as it encourages misogyny, cruel and unjust punishment, and repression(of a sexual nature and of common sense).

So a fallback argument is procreation, but this fails splendidly because it is based on the false assumption that allowing gay marriage will halt procreation of the species. There's homosexuality in other species, yet homosexual members of a species has never(AFAIK) constituted a majority nor had anything beyond a negligible impact on species procreation. Additionally, homosexual couples wishing to raise children do have options such as adoption and surrogate mother-ship(or in-vitro fertilization in the case of lesbian couples).

So in conclusion, it's evident that opponents of gay marriage have no standing morally, legally, or even logically. The only provenance they can claim is solely within religious circles, not civil matters performed by the state. The evidence for gay marriage as a civil right is ever mounting and it may be the right time for the United States to finally embrace gay marriage as a civil right, just as it did interracial marriage.

Disclosure: I am not gay, but I do have a relative who is, and I have several friends in SL/OpenSim who are gay and I support their rights 100%.

Credits:
¹http://gayteens.about.com/od/glbtteenlifestyle/ss/the_bibile_4.htm

Update: I've found two YouTube videos(here and here) that goes over Judge Walker's ruling and they absolutely demolish the Pro-Prop8 side's claims and arguments. They are truly must-see videos.