I think it is time to recognize that marriage is a religious sacrament. If your religion, like mine, is orthodox the procreative and lineal tracking are paramount. Marrige is for the creation of children and the stability of the core unit of society–not for prsonal fulfillment and happily ever after nonsense.

We have a NEED to look at this a separation of Church and state issue.

All couples should register their legal business relationship with the government. I will pool my resources and share my assets with this person–I register my sexual exclusivity to this person as a term of this contract. Thus this partner has access to me in the event of hospitalization, this person shares in my work benefits (health insurance etc)
It is time to recognize inheiritance rights of this legal contract for leases and taxes. Keep the mush out if it! It is a LEGAL STATUS with the state.

HAVE A NICE DAY.

Marriage is a covenant with God and should be administered by clergy and it should carry NO WEIGHT in the legal system at all.

Go to the county clerk and register your business union and deal. Then if you need God’s sacrament go to your church and marry in God’s eyes. Ministers, and priests should have no status to permit or deny these business arrangements.

My church will never accept gay marriage–it flies in the face of the core values of the religion. I believe in those core values that is why I am a member. Don’t ask me to change for your comfort.

I fully accept your right to live in any way you want, even if I believe it imperils your soul. But don’t tell my children it is just the same–it is not from our theoretical frame of reference. I do not teach intolerance and hate–but I also do not teach relativism–I teach personal responsibility as a duty and that hate is always bad.

Then it was only a short time later that I heard an announcement that gave B0 the credit for expanding these rights. But, after all, that’s the 0bama way of doing things – others do the heavy lifting and he swoops in to take the credit and the bows.

RRRA, you and your partner will be fighting even more over who loves Hillary the most after you see this – Hillary talking with Ellen on this subject about half way through this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVHiQ6gGV6Q

Maybe we gays should get a petitions to overturn equal rights laws…..

I should have known you knew (like Lana in another post). I am pleading complete and utter sleep deprivation from these late night baseball games! I should be better soon!

And thanks, Lana – the thing is, there are people who DO pray like that. Scary, isn’t it? I honestly cannot understand anyone who claims to be a Christian believing like that. It is a complete reversal of the message Jesus actually preached.

I hope it is true that attitudes are generational. Yet, it wasn’t all that long ago that Matthew Shepherd was beaten and left for dead. GLBT people are still being attacked and beaten now.

There is much work to be done, friends.

Why should anyone cares who marries whom?

I don’t.

That’s not special treatment. That’s allowing people to marry the person they choose.

I don’t assume (ass of u and me) that voting against people marrying people who happen to be of the same gender is hate.

I too, in a very red state, voted to allow gay marriage. Why? Because even if my child were not gay it’s none of my business.

I’ve lived in and visited countries all over the world.

I’ve lost count of the the states in the US I’ve either traveled to or lived in.

I’ve faced discrimination and have been called the “N” word. No, it didn’t all happen below the Mason/Dixon line.

Funny, I’m as straight as they come and still feel pain and outrage when gays are targeted. This was before one of my children came out to me.

But guess what? My love for my child is unconditional. I’m a Momma Bear and will fiercely defend my child laws or no laws.

Not to be rude but suck it up. I and my children have faced discrimination just because of who we were born as.

If you can’t find someone that’s life. But there are no laws against being single. Or if someday you should find someone, and I’m figuring you’re heterosexual, there are no laws preventing a marriage.

That being said, my gay sister still strongly supports Obama. When I asked her a couple of months ago if she was disappointed that Obama has not followed through on his promise to the LGBT community, she said she was but she was willing to give him 18 months. Don’t know where that number came from. I guess the real issue is that there’s no where else for her to go. Those of us who support same-sex marriage can hardly vote Republican can we?

Of course, the answer was right there in front of us–Hillary. And the video just underscores in such a sad, could-have-been way who really would have brought about this change. Attitudes toward LGBT may be generational, but I fear that change is too many generations away.

Being single is NOT my choice. Not all of us are lucky enough to win the love lottery.

“But don’t blame gay people.”

Not blaming gay people. Just saying that the argument that gay couples deserve benefits doesn’t really work for me personally. I also think it might hurt the cause precisely because it brings up the issue of why the state sanctions marriage and provides benefits in the first place (for many, this is because of the children).

More compelling issues to me are basic things such as being able to see someone in the hospital or your foreign spouse being allowed to emigrate.

It also pains me to see some gays take these losses as signs that people hate them. A good friend of mine (who I met here on this website) voted against gay marriage in California. She doesn’t hate gays, she’s friends with gays. I know, I’ve hung out with her and some mutual gay friends.

The issue of why the state should provide benefits to a “family” to me is one that is not a black and white thing. I hope that people can understand that and not just presume a hateful, hostile attitude behind everyone who votes against gay marriage.

(BTW, I voted in favor of gay marriage in the last election here.)

I’d rather see an end to all marriage as I regard it chiefly as an outdated patriarchal custom of buying and selling women, but since this is never going to happen, I support gay marriage as an issue of equality.