My thoughts on Gay Marriage

Being gay is natural - so there should be marriage equality.

But, I want to expand on your idea about health care. Health care should be a right not a product bought through insurance companies.

I agree with Joe, that health care should be a right of all legal citizens.

live and let live, and we should all have the same standard rights to health care, etc

It is a crime in this country that people suffer as we don't have health care. Children should not suffer because they were born into a family with no insurance. Seniors should not suffer because they only don't have the money for what medicare won't cover. We live in a society that says that the people who fall between the cracks don't matter. They do! We will have basic health care for everyone soon this country. The system is going to change. Quality health care will be for the rich, who will pay for it, but basic health care should be covered in our taxes! Those more fortunate should pay for those less fortunate. Our current system is heartless.

I third. Frankly, what happens between consenting adults is none of my business, unless I am one of them. Everyone having access to good health care is only common sense. It cost less to take care of a problem when it is small that when it becomes life threatening. As for the legal part--I'm a citizen of the world--borders are just lines on a map

We are only called to love, not judge!

the gay community doesn't know that they are saving huge amounts of money by not being able to marry. they don't have to pay for weddings of course the divorces that follow over half of the marriages in this contry.

I fourth! We are who we are. We have no right to sit as judges or have anyone judge us (unless we commit a crime) -

Basic health care should be a right to which we are all entitled.

I pretty much agree with this. Let them live happily together with the same benefits. I know many homosexuals and I see no problem with it. They struggle just like the rest of us, so they might as well get at least a few of the same advantages.

Thanks for bringing in this perspective Heather and the others who've responded.

Honestly...I don't care one way or the other about Gay Marriages. If they want to get married..Great..Congrats, If they don't...that's fine too. I do think that if they do have some sort of a Union..Married/ partenership...whatever, they need to have the same benefits. But you hear alot of people saying that "Gay marriages ruins the sanctity (Or something like that) of marriage" That's complete BS.

I agree..Health care should be a RIGHT not a product!

I think if the lawyers got together and realized that having a partnering or whatever you want to call it was a legal way for gay people to legally commit, they would get it passed in the legislature. They would see an increase their practices with all those who want to walk away from their legal significant others.

If legislatures are going to have to work out the details of "partnering" why not just let people get married? Why do the legislatures have to take up their time with some new legal status? If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck -- it's a duck!

Thanks Kathleen and thanks Elizabeth!

The opposition to gay marriage is the sanctity of marriage. Most marriages happen in church. Well, call it partnering and the opposition "they" lose "their" argument. People can partner when they just want some one to have the rights of a spouse even if they are not Gay. Yes, it is a different term for marriage but there are other uses for it. What if you aren't gay but you have no living relatives, you are 80 years old and the possibility of partnering would be one way to give your best friend the right to decide what medically happens to you, and inherit your belongings without probate court and some lawyer getting a cut. Spinster sisters who live together could do this. It would be a legal way to provide legal marriage benefits to people who aren't gay, who maybe don't want the big wedding brou ha ha but want the legal connection. Anyone can have a wedding but if it's not legal, where are you?

It may not make sense in the duck definition, but I think it would pass easier than marriage...it goes back to the history and sanctity of marriage which has been a common male female ceremony for a very long time. Maybe it's time for something new and what can the opposition say to it...they will have lost their argument. Gay people can get all kinds of licenses except one - marriage. Marriage is a legal agreement for hetero sexuals. So if they get their way if they don't want to allow Gays in and the Gays get their way if it they can make this legal agreement pass under a different term. So it's the same thing, but we are talking legal not church here. Legal rights of people to have the same legal status of married people.

Not being married does not stop anyone from living together... I was just suggesting a way to get the same status and legal rights without all the hoopla!

Jesus said to Love one another. I understand both sides of this coin and I believe that to Love one another would be to allow legal marriage to anyone and let the churches decide if they will do the ceremonies. I was just suggesting an alternative that might get a path to get the benefits of marriage for gay couples faster.

Thank you Tina!

To all my brothers and sisters in Christ,

I am talking about Gay couples being able to get the same benefits that marriage gives us married folk, legally. I know what the Bible says but I also know that it must hurt very badly when you are the significant other and you have no say when your loved one is being treated in the hospital. I know it must be devastating to be told you have to leave your home and all the possessions you had with your loved one because despite the years or decades you spent together, you are "put out with the trash" by your loved ones family.

Think of all the legal benefits we can enjoy being married. Put your beliefs aside and imagine you were a gay man, how would it feel that your love and devotion meant something to your guy but you couldn't protect him when you died from your family hurting him. This is not about condoning homosexuality.

Not being able to get married is not going to stop a gay person from spending their life with another gay person. They are probably already married in their hearts. It is the legal entitlement, I think they are looking for. Of all people on earth I have good reasons and I will not go into of why it would be understandable that I would hate gay people and I don't. They are the same as you and me and they have chosen a lifestyle that we haven't. I leave it up to the churches to do what they do. Some churches have gay ministers leading the flock which should be the issue you may want to debate if you are concerned about condoning homosexuality.

Many gay people married the opposite sex to satisfy their parents and to appear "normal" in life like everyone else. How devastating to find out your spouse is gay. How do you compete? How does it feel that your life is a fraud? The pain is crushing. If you have invested many years of your life and find out when you are old, I just can't imagine. It's far better that these people go and find their happiness and not hurt others trying to live a "normal" accepted life.

The laws of the land are laws. What people do behind closed doors when they are consenting adults is their decision. I stand by my suggestion to let people have the choice of partnering. It leaves marriage the way it is and allows the gay people to get the legal benefits.

God will sort everything out. He is more interested in our hearts. I think a kind Gay person who never hurt a soul in their life who believes in Jesus and lived his life helping others may have less to explain than a heterosexual Bible thumping pastor who cheats on his wife and beats his children with his fists, but is also a Jesus believer when they both go before the Lord. Jesus came for the sinners.

I agree with Tina. I also understand Heather. However everything that happens now in our lifetimes becomes stepping stones to the future. I, personally do not want to further the destruction of what God created and His Holy will. Of course we must not judge but we do have a resposibility to lead and to teach. Our Lord does not want compliant reeds swaying in whatever breeze that blows it , we must be active in living the lives that He taught us to live. And pain is not always a bad thing. They can be blessings, (and I know this from a very personal standpoint.) and they can teach. Not that we should inflinct it, but that we should not always say, "well, lets allow everyone to do as they wish and help them by making it comfortable, to each his own." It is not to each his own. It is God's own! And if we smile and say, "well, good for you," than we are in fact in partnership with those doing the wrong. "We are One Body in Christ." We are being molded by fire, not a gentle breeze. Love the sinner, not the sin. Accept the sinner, not the sin.

Thanks for a really good article Heather, and some really good arguments. I believe they now have this form of legal partnership in France, and many couples of varied types enjoy the option to obtain the benefits of marraige free from religious overtones. Meanwhile those choosing church and marraige are made more aware of their religious obligations.

Thanks Lorie for commenting!

Thank you Sheila!

I don't know why people get in such an uproar about letting two people get partnered. What difference does it make. Sex between unmarried people is rampant in our world. Exodus 20:14 "You shall not commit adultery..

People drink and drive and kill and maim people and get a slap on the wrist." Oop's, a mistake", a random killing is an oop's. And the person in the wheelchair gets to suffer for their lifetime for an oop's. A mother visits her childs grave and gets to cry the rest of her life for an oops?

People devastate other people being racist and prejudiced and make them feel awful. "If it isn't me who cares?" How many have slit their wrists as they were tired of being treated like they were sub-human?

White collar theft "Well, no one really got hurt, it's not like I put a gun to someone's back..." Meanwhile a retired person suddenly has to get a job as the money they saved is gone for good.

Get real people. We do little about the awful things that happens around us. Not many care about the children who are being abused. Not many care about the wives that are being abused. Not many care about innocent people rotting in jail. "Well they must have done something to deserve it".. All because it wasn't us and we can't believe innocent people go to jail for crimes they didn't commit.

But two people who love and live with each other want get the legal benefits married people do and it's "Perish the thought, they must be punished for they are sinning. As Christians we can't allow this." It will happen, mark my words, it is only a matter of time. I was only discussing it. We already have churches being led by Gay ministers. I would think that would be more disturbing...

If you don't want to partner with the sinners in looking the other way, concentrate on sinners who are hurting others please. Make the penalties harder. No one should have a rap sheet several pages wrong of a lifetime of hurting others. You don't feel safe after being beat up, robbed or raped. Yet there are many who are out there going their merry way destroying lives. We just leave it to the police to take care of it. What is our responsibility here? Are we not as a society accountable for this? We elect the people who make the laws.

Revelations 22:10 And he saith unto me, Seal not up the words of the prophecy of this book; for the time is at hand.

11 He that is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness still: and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him do righteousness still: and he that is holy, let him be made holy still.

12 Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to each man according as his work is.

I agree with Elizabeth - as long as marriage is treated as a legal institution, then all people should be able to be married under law. Whether or not a church chooses to marry them in a religious context as members of that church is up to that particular denomination.

Gosh, in reading some of the comments above, doesn't it strike you as odd that the Bible supports "hurting" good people, people that you believe God created in his image? Sigh. NEW testament, people. NEW testament.

Sheryl, Jesus said John 15:12:
12This is My commandment: that you love one another [just] as I have loved you.

Too many miss this and give Jesus a bad reputation. He came for the sinners to reconcile them with God. Not round up people and give them a good wacking for their sins....yet in Ireland they are killing each other in Jesus's name.

It is such a waste. I think we all have our own path to God. We are accountable for our sins and I pass judgement on no one. I am a suicide survivor and I am in no postion to cast any stones at anyone. We were born with a sin nature, we were given this choice of free will. It is my choice to let Jesus pay the price for my sins, Lord knows I'll never earn my way in Heaven.

I don't think the Bible supports hurting good people. I think it is many things and it is taken out of context. God knew people couldn't follow the ten commandments, if they could, they wouldn't need Jesus. Jesus helps us to avoid sin. He knows we mess up. I don't have all the answers but all I know is we have to stop hurting each other.

Heather - although I don't personally believe in the Bible or in a god as you believe, I can certainly agree with your premise - that we don't have all the answers but we need to stop hurting each other. We are all part of a large family - if you go back far enough, we all came from the same place. To hurt another, whether it be in the name of religion or war or tribe or race or anything, is to hurt ourselves and all of humanity. Thanks for your thoughts - it gives me a little hope to hear that from someone who is obviously religious.

Actually, I have great faith but I believe religion messes more people up than it helps. Too many hoops in religion. We either are forgiven because of Jesus dying for us or we are not. Too many rules and customs turn people away. It is better to encourage and uplift people than to judge and criticize. We are all works in progress, and when we lose sight of that we alienate others. To many think Christianity is a role. To me it is the way I live my life and my focus is on loving one another. No matter how little I have had in my life, I have always been rich as I always share what I have. All I have been through in my life, I thank God it wasn't worse. Love is all there is that is anything in the world and God is interested in our hearts. I made fun of the Bible until I was in my 30's. I thought it was full of judgement. The old testament had an angry God and the new testament had a loving God. I found a book called Christianity is Jewish by Edith Schaefer and that tied the whole thing together for me. I have been giving out that book ever since.

Sheryl, I really appreciate your comments! I encourage you at sometime to pray and ask God show you what he wants you to see. It is your relationship with him and even though you don't believe in him, it might be interesting to see what happens. Let me know! Smile!

thanks, Heather. I am about to turn 51 and have done a LOT of thinking, and living, about religion(s) and the Bible and what/who people consider to be god.

I do believe in a force that ties us all together - i do believe that there have been many advanced, enlightened people who really saw and tried to live and teach (i.e., Jesus) the right way, in the context of their time's beliefs. I believe that, just as Jesus said, god is not up there in the sky, god is in you and me and in the rocks under our feet. Think about that.....no big guy with a white beard listening to our prayers, judging our every move, ticking off our positives and negatives. That's a very scary thought to many people - not having a personified god - knowing that god is US and we are GOD, as Jesus taught. It is downright terrifying to most people - not having a god somewhere else to prayer to, to plead to, to "count on". What they're missing is being able to depend on themselves and their greater human families around them.

Read more deeply into what he said, and what other enlightened people have tried to share. You will not find prayers or the bearded man or the hymns or the spires or the preachers. You will find yourself and me....and we must be responsible to make heaven on this earth, in this time, and in this place. because it just doesn't exist anywhere else. that's what i believe. thanks for asking.

I can see that a legal equivalent to marriage could provide a lot of benefits, but if it's an exact equivalent, I don't understand why it shouldn't be marriage. It kinda reminds me of "separate but equal" and we know that didn't work out well at all. Also, when you say this sort of "partnership" could include best friends and siblings, that doesn't really sound like a marriage equivalent at all.

Up until 50 years or so ago, interracial marriage was illegal in most states. Usually a felony. In Virginia, you could go to prison for a year just for registering as the wrong race. If you said you were white but it was discovered you had a single non-white ancestor ever, and you knew about it, you were in trouble. You could go to prison. If you were married to a white person, they could go to prison too. And you wouldn't be legally married to them any more.

I think (I certainly hope) that sort of thing seems totally and completely wrong now, but back then a lot of people thought it was the right thing to do. People justified it with science (eugenics), with religion (Phineas, "Curse of Ham"), and with tradition and patriotism (laws against interracial marriage went back to pre-Colonial times).

I hope that in 50 years time people look back on the fight against gay marriage in much the same way we now look at the people who fought against interracial marriage.

Thanks Wil! I just thought that if it had a different name, the people who oppose it would have no argument against it. It just seems to me that the only way people can get anywhere near the benefits of marriage would be to legally adopt each other. I was looking at it more from a legal standpoint than anything else. Legally there should be something gay people can do to have the same benefits of married people. This was more of a gay rights issue to me, I wasn't intending to go into the depth of the religious aspect of protecting the sanctity of marriage and what God thinks. To me people are people. They are going to do what they are going to do. Why make their lives harder legally. I would hate it if something happened to my husband and I suddenly was out on the street because his family objected to our relationship. Many people have in laws that would love to do that. Thank God my husbands family are good people. I just wonder why do gay people have to go through this? Why do they have to pay a price because they love someone other people don't understand? I believe you live and let live. Gay people did not just appear out of nowhere. These people have been around a long time and who cares what they are doing with each other. As long as they do it in their own homes like everyone else what is the difference.

I understand, Heather. And if it would help them legally, then I think it might be a step forward. But I think the people who oppose it will still oppose it, and we'll find out that it isn't the word "marriage" that they're really worried about. But I hope that at some point we can get past the discrimination against gay people and they'll be able to be married in the eyes of the law.

I'm with you, Heather, on "live and let live" and "people are people." I don't think it's good for any of us to have all this fear and hate and discrimination in our societies. We've overcome so much of that sort of thing, and I'm trying hard to be optimistic and confident that we can move past this kind of discrimination, too.

Thanks Wil! I agree with you totally. Fear is a key word and I don't understand why people are so driven to hate other people and judge them before they even get to know them.

You are all correct in not hating anyone, we should love everyone. EVERYONE. Love is the begining of all charity which is demanded by God. "Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you" (Matt. 543-44.) We should all be merciful as He is merciful. Every person has his failings and needs to be shown mercy and one act of mercy is the act of fraternal correction. Through a motive of charity we must admonish one another's sins. Jesus has demanded us, "Brethen, if a man be overtaken in any fault, you who are spiritual instruct such a one in the spirit of mildnss considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted" (Gal. 6,1.) Lets imagine that a young child decides to take up sneaking his father's beer, you would certainly be wrong to ignore it and say that we should "not judge" that young child. Of course you would not say, "oh! what a horrible child! He should rot in hell!" Instead you would have pity on him and take him aside, explain the dangers and then be sure that he cannot reach the bottles anymore. In this we are protecting the child, not discriminating against him. Now some will well say that "partnering" isn't really bad or dangerous. Of course those who are gay are often very much kind and gentle people, I am friendly with one gentleman who is, to my opinion, one of the most loving and empathetic people I have yet met, and he has "a partner." However, to go back to my original analogy he is but that little child who does not know. I am not saying that the world at large has not yet condemed him for I am certain it has caused him much pain, but that the charitable approach is most often taken I seriously doubt. I believe that most homosexuals recieve unjust condemnation and cruelty at the hands of the people of the world. That is not what I think that they need. But we have a right to protect the Truth and one another.
Now I am quickly off to work and regret , mostly for my sake I admit, that I cannot continue to explain my position, but I will be back.....

Thanks Lorie! I look forward to hearing what you want to add!

To Everyone: My view as my decision to be Christian is I am to share the good news about Jesus! As an ambassador for Christ I am to live my beliefs. I am to lovemy enemies and pray for everyone. I also know that God draws us to him and his son via the Holy Spirit. We are to strengthen one another, sings his praises and do good works to and give the glory to God. We also are to invite Jesus into our hearts and follow the path he provides for us. I believe I am to share with others, as in do unto others as they would do unto you, but I don't think that is in the Bible.

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. Some people are blind and deaf to the spiritual world. You can say the words and plant seeds. It is up to them to seek and find. I believe there are many paths.

We all sin and fall short of the Glory of God. I tried to commit suicide many times in 1978. That is one of the worst things you can do. I cannot judge others. God sent me back and I have a memory of him telling me the last time I almost died from an accidental overdose , that the next time he wouldn't send me back to my life. He said I had people counting on me and more for me to do. I have received already almost 30 extra years.

My whole understanding is that we are on earth with free will. We can chose God or we can decide not to. Satan creates havoc in our lives and lies to us in thoughts to get us to think that God is punishing us and hates us for our sin. Many hurting people believe they are suffering because God wants them too. The war is in the mind. The battle is spiritual and the goal is for Satan to convince people to hate God and blame God and not know that God loves us all, sins and warts and all and wants a relationship with us.

We sin because we have a sin nature. We also sin because of temptation. We are accountable to God and ourselves. Jesus died so we could have eternal life and will step forward on Judgement Day to say when I am accused, that I accepted him as my savior and he paid my ransom so I am forgiven of all our sins and receive the gift of eternal life with him. What keeps me from sinning is the scripture, Grieve not the Holy Spirit. I know I am forgiven but we all make mistakes and it upsets me to think that when I do wrong I grieve the Holy Spirit, my lifeline and comforter.

People are going to sin. If giving gay people who are already committed to each other and are in a sexual relationship the ability to legalize their relationship in the way of partnering is like giving a green light to the sin they are already committing, then let's take away the civil rights of all the adulterous spouses, the pedophiles, the people who lie, (bearing false witness), the people who covet there neighbors spouses, yes we need the thought police here and everyone that is sinning. This is what we are doing to the gay people. We are saying, you are doing a sin according to our beliefs so you are not entitled to civil rights. It is bad enough that it was done to blacks and minorities, and in continues in different ways to be done.

If Christians want to "protect" the sanctity of marriage then they should be providing an alternate path for gays to have their civil rights in partnering.

It obviously is not stopping gay people from their "sin" because they can't get married what difference does providing a path for them to partner do?

It's been over 30 years that abortion is legal. Gays are not hurting anyone else. It is odd to me that it can be legal to terminate a pregnancy that may have resulted in a new person, but illegal for two gay people to be legally committed to each other.

"I believe that Gay people need to not get married but get partnered. Legal partnered, same as marriage, just a different word. That would change the whole equation of the argument. People who are heterosexual could get partnered if they wanted too."

that is a double standard. gays can't have marriage, but can be partnered and str8 folks can have either? are you kidding me?

btw "partnered" = "civil union."

a point that is not made nearly enough regarding this issue...

there are churches and religions in the u.s. that believe in marriage between two peoples regardless of gender, orientation, etc.... how can the government say no to glbt marriages... that infringes on freedom of religion... a person's right to worship and practice their religion of choice. and if the friggin' christians can have their marriage recognized by the government, shouldn't everyone else's also be recognized?

Wish more people shared your beliefs Heather ...

IMHO, what I am concerned about is what may eventually follow after sanctioning gay marriage. I respect (and love) gay people esp. my hairdresseser :-) but their sexual acts are a perversion of what nature intended (and cannot be in parallel with interracial marriage being illegal in the past)

Will gay commercials be common, will there be giant fashion ads with gays in provocative poses? It's bad enough that young people are exposed to sexuality and other kinds of depravity in the media -- isn't this going to make it worse. What will become of us as a society? Will we soon come to watch medical services promoting sex change operations become as common as Viagra and breast enhancement ads???

"Human passions unbridled by morality and religion… would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people" - John Adams

What difference does it make if you call a gay union a marriage? You can get married completely without religion...so if it is your religion that doesn't want to deal with it, just let it be marriage that takes place in another church or a courthouse.

I think this is nuts and sad.

There's a place you can put the word.

Don't quote your book to me. Your book means nothing to me, your god means nothing to me. But, you have no right to tell me that I'm not entitled to respect and equal rights and that my children are less than.

I don't care how you feel. You don't give a shit about me any mine. Heather, you are not acting like a Christian you are talking like a bigot trying not to be blamed.

I'm ashamed of you.

as one of the nearly 16,000 same sex couples who wed recently here in my home town in san fran, the passing of prop 8 or H8te, has been very shocking. that in this day and age, as the whole country celebrated that anyone can become president, it is insulting that something so based in religious preferences can be so much a part of state government.
all people are not created equal now.
the joy of a new president seems silly, to think that america ,has grown up to respect all of its citizens,not just the strait ones.
i pay taxes.
i think the churches of all religous groups should pay taxes,especially the mormans and the knights of columbus catlicks.
how in this day and age, does the strait world take away rights.?
shall we vote to take away the womans vote? no
shall we vote to take away the right to vote for blacks? no.
where is equality? if one person or group is allowed ,and the other group or person is not allowed. it is hate. it is bigotry. it is discrimination. it is not the same and it is not equal.
and i do believe that the supreme court will reverse it again and again and again, til everyone has the same rights.
a strait couple has more than 1,000 rights that a domestic partnership does not allow,including inheritance and child custody. (and yes there are gay people who have children naturally, as well as in other enlightened ways such as adoption and insemination)
i was raised catholic, and i had to choose to leave the church because i couldnt pick and choose the parts that i liked. i had a choice. i should have a choice of religious activities.
and i should also have the same right to marry whom i choose. that said, after 27 years together, we wont go away, we will still continue to fight for "change" and dignity. and we have covered the laws thru legal documents so that we get to choose who inherits what and who has a say in our lives.
if you dont want gay marriage. dont marry a gay.
let your loving god help you to not judge,leave that to lucifer,not the precious jesus in the storybooks.

This is a very good article Heather and I am enjoying reading all the comments. I believe in Gay marriage. Salud

a person's right to worship and practice their religion of choice. and if the friggin' christians can have their marriage recognized by the government, shouldn't everyone else's also be recognized

Amen (Undeniable)

So what you are talking about is a level of commitment somewhere between deciding to live together and actually being married? Sounds like Civil Unions-- which I'm all for, but I don't think it should have anything to do with your gender or your partner's -- it should be about the intensity of the commitment that two people share. If that intensity is strong enough to constitute marriage than so be it.

The funniest thing about the government not allowing gay marriages is that marriage is usually taken place in a church or at least by some sort of pastor or minister, etc. Didn't the government itself decide to separate church and state. Honestly, I do not know why they have a say in it at all. If two people love each other, let them be together and allow them to have the same rights as a heterosexual married couple. I am also a Christian and as such, I wonder how other Christians feel they have the right to play judge. If they are true Christians, they all know there is only one true judge, and that is GOD. If this is such an abhorable sin (which every sin is, no matter which sin it is), let GOD deal out the punishment. We are to forgive and pray for those who do not follow Christ's path. Did He, Himself say those that are without sin cast the first stone. Get a Grip, fellow Christians. It is not for you to judge!!!!

Why didn't American White people simply offer American Black people the right to call themselves "Like-Equal" as opposed to Equal. That way, everyone could have what they wanted and it would take the wind out of the sails of bigots who wanted Blacks to stay oppressed.
That's what your "Legal Partnered" sounds like to me.

I will not rest until "Liberty and Justice for All" includes me.

I say call it marriage. If churches don't want to marry gay people, so what? They can go to another church/minister/justice of the peace. It's stupid to call the same thing something else just to appease people. A rose by any other name is still a rose.

' BY THE POWER VESTED IN ME BY THE S T A T E OF _________ I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU MAN AND WIFE"

The States have given the rights to the clergy to perform CIVIL contracts! everyone should be required to have a civil union and if you want a church wedding go ahead.

in the mist of darkness there is Good News

At a news conference Thursday in New York City...Governor David Paterson said he is introducing a Marriage Equality bill to bring Gay Marriage to the State Of New York.

Seperate but Equal is anything but!

Keep your "religious" marriage in your church. Make Legal marriage and open and Equal Legal contract.

If you don't like gays using the word "marriage" then CHANGE ALL LEGAL MARRIAGE CONTRACTS to be EXACTLY the same. No exceptions, no excuses.

I recognize marriage and all the legal ramifications and protections it affords. If we are to be truly the United States of America, we cannot seperate any one groups' set of legal contracts and call them something else because others can't handle the idea.
I respect an individual's right to practice their personal faith, but please keep those faith based views out of MY government! I don't tell you how to pray, please don't tell me what Legal contracts I may enter into. It's none of your business, it doesn't affect you, it doesn't diminish your legal contracts and it certainly doesn't have any impact whatsoever on your religious practices.

If a doctor refuses to treat a LGBT person, then that doctor has an OBLIGATION to refer that individual to a doctor who will! (Hippocratic Oath: First do no harm!)
If a church refuses to perform a gay/lesbian (same sex of anykind) cerimony, fine whatever, there are other churches that will.
If a parent doesn't want their child to be taught that same-sex marriages are EQUAL in all LEGAL sences in public school, then put that child into a Private Religious school that teaches only what that parent agrees with in a religious setting.

I'm well aware that there is no formal seperation of church and state in our constitution, and I see that as a terribly oversight on the part of our founding fathers. They were well aware that the church should not have a say as to what law are/were created for the full populous. They feared theocracy and created this nation in rebelion against it. So, let's honor those great dreamers who created this nation we so love, and keep church our of governmental decissions.

"LEGALIZE" same-sex marriage, it's the RIGHT thing to do!

We are not put here to judge! so I won't. I'm just glad that we all have to answer for our own selves on judgement day(I respectfully understand if you're not a believer). I feel the most important thing is life is being happy and if two of the same sex are truly happier than being with the opposite, then I say "Live and let live" As a woman about to end her marriage to a man, then I can't stand up for marriage of any kind at THIS moment. But I am still happy and content and if gay people are also, then it's really none of society's biz who's sleeping with who.

For example: I don't like brocoli but I'm not going to protest for it to stop being produced and eaten,,,,I just simply leave it alone and let it be.

You are so close.   

I see where you may be coming from in regards to change the name for a certain group of people and it will make some people relax on the law part of it.  That may be true.  But the fact remains iIf we call it something different then it is something different.

Its not the exact same but is similar to .....ok, fine....you can ride on the bus and get to your location but you have to ride in the back.

Gays are still riding at the back of the bus.

oh come on, america loves that "same but not equal" gig. ;)

i think gay marrage should not happen it's sick not that i have anything against gays but its sick when u think of 2 gays kissing eachother

so let me get this straight... you do not the gays and lesbians should be allowed to marry because you think it is "sick" for two people of the same sex kissing?

wow...

just how old are you?

Heather is wise beyond her years. Her sense of right and wrong has sustained her like a guardian angel watching over her. Heather has survived to help others. Thank you.

It is simply wrong to deny those benefits one has to others.