Gay Marriage

The fight over Gay marriage is not really about over whether or not gays and lesbians can or even should get married. It will have no effect whatsoever on heterosexual marriage for good or ill, with the possible exception that if marriage for homosexuals were legal all over this country possibly some people would not marry members of the opposite sex for the benefits marriage gives. I am making the assumption that people who are homosexual might marry a member of the opposite sex.

The entire fight is over making open homosexuality acceptable in our society or taking away what rights homosexuals have earned, fought for or been given to this point.

If homosexuals truly just wanted to be legally married then Civil Unions would be the way to go. They are marriages in all but the use of the word marriage. It would still be possible to have ceremonies within church buildings where the church members were OK with certain lifestyles if a church ceremony was desired. All benefits of marriage would apply such as hospital visitation, inheritance etc...

On the other side, only cruel and hateful people would deliberately keep people who loved each other from being able to spend their lives together. It takes a special kind of hate, or crazy greed, to deny a person medical care just because they act in a certain way. That is they would be cruel and hateful if they were doing it deliberately to hurt people. Instead I believe that they do it out of fear and ignorance.

Civil Unions should be allowed throughout the US where the people who live in an area decide it is acceptable. Where it is not allowed, those areas should still be made to accept it the same way a state that does not allow marriage between people under say the age of 18 years of age, still would be forced to accept the marriage of a couple where one or more of the people was under the age of 18 but legally able to be married in another state, (for example Alabama allows marriage with parental consent at age 14) in which the marriage was performed.

Why someone would want to live in an area where the majority of the local population hated or feared them would be a separate issue all together.