[header] How to have a discussion on gay marriage [title] Avoid logical fallacies. [step] Discussions on controversial topics often involve one or both sides of the debate resorting to logical errors. Knowing what the most common logical fallacies are can help you evaluate your own arguments as well as the arguments of others. 
An accessible discussion of logical fallacies is available at [title] Avoid the straw man fallacy. [step] This logical fallacy arises when a person distorts or caricatures someone's argument and proceeds to refute the distortion or caricature rather than the actual argument.