Palindrome wrote:
] Exactly! These people feel the exact same way. Just because
] they are involved with someone of the same sex does not change
] the emotions and feelings that are involved. In fact it most
] likely intensifies them.

I agree, there are definitely many gay people I know of, for whom the concept of marriage *is* an important emotional foundation. However, I can also think of many gays I know who want to get married for no other reason than that it would annoy the mainstreamers. For example, think of the really flamboyant drag queens. They love to shock, they love to get attention, they love to change society around them because they feel that they have the moral right to make other people's "boring lives" more interesting. And frankly, I see them as just as dangerous as anyone out on the conservative right who's trying to impose their own religious views on others.

For those gays who do take marriage seriously, who are in lifelong committed relationships, I truly don't have a problem with supporting the concept of gay marriage. But then I can look at the rest of the community, and I take a step back and see that gays are a tiny fraction of the overall population, but are asking for a massive overhaul of a multitude of institutions that span the breadth of our entire society -- legal, economic, personal, everything.

It wasn't so long ago that gays were pariahs. However, I think the AIDS epidemic helped mainstream society achieve more sympathy for gays, especially when they saw the commitment that was exhibited by some individuals as they cared for dying partners. So, people that a generation or two ago would have had to hide their sexual preference, can now live a more open life. But it's still not "accepted" everywhere yet.

Again, speaking personally, I'm not arguing that gay marriage is an abhorrent idea. But I think it's clear that our society is not ready for this yet. And I can think of *lots* of examples of ways that allowing gay marriage would throw the lives of many non-gays into chaos.

RE: The Values-Vote Myth