The people in the WTC did not run and jump from two gay men trying to marry.
Nclib,
Jesus...you gotta be kidding me. Here's the world's biggest violin playing for gays not being able to marry.
MarkDel,
Yes, that post was a bit sarcastic. I was NOT trying to trivialize the WTC attacks. If you felt that that post was in poor taste, please accept my apology. I was simply trying to illustrate the point that not all of Bush's fear stems from protecting against terrorist attacks.
There are legitimate positions against gay marriage. But there's a difference between:
a) opposing gay marriage in a way similiar to opposing vouchers, tax cuts, free trade, etc.
AND
b) being extremely fearful of the idea of gay marriage and going to epic proportions to ban it.
I am not accusing you of b, just saying that many in the religious right act that way.
I'd like to marry, all at once, a dozen 18 year old girls who look like Britney Spears, but the government won't let me, will they? And I'm sure there are some guys out there with really hot little sisters who'd like to marry them...but they can't. And I'm sure there's some sick folks who'd like to marry their mother after she divorces dad...but they can't.
WHY??? Because marriage is a state sponsored PRIVILEGE and not a RIGHT. The government has a compelling and rational interest based on thousands of years of Judeo Christian tradition to limit marriage to unions between men and women. Civil Unions are another issue...if people want to contract away inheritance rights and other similiar matters, that's fine, but don't tell me Gays have a RIGHT to marry in a religious sense. If you go down that path, you might as well just abolish the formal institution of marriage.
I agree that marriage is a right not a privilege in the sense that I can't force someone to marry me. The issue is that marriage is a bond between two consenting adults. It has been a bond between a man and a woman for ages, but it also was for ages,
-a bond between one or two NON-CONSENTING adults
-a bond between a man and a woman of the same race
That's why precedent alone can't be used to oppose gay marriage.
