People tend to get caught up in semantics when it comes to this issue of legalizing gay marriage. A majority of religious folks will quote bible verses to support their stance that gay marriage -and the whole idea of being gay for that matter- is wrong and against everything that God intended. I have no problem agreeing with that. A majority of liberals -and most anyone who identifies themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual, etc.- wants equal rights under the constitution and laws of the United States which include the right to be legally 'married' and have access to all the same legal rights as a traditional man-woman marriage would have. I also have no problem agreeing with that.
The very simple solution to this whole mess is in the word "marriage" and what that means to religious people versus what it means in a legal sense. So, for the sake of all the holier-than-thou religious people of the world who have taken it upon themselves to pass God's judgement on everyone and anyone who doesn't strictly adhere to their version of religion, just change the damn word from "marriage" to something less inflammatory like "legal domestic partnership". If you're gay, fine; you can call yourself "married" to your partner, but as far as the law is concerned -and for the sake of all religious zealots- just make two legally-defined terms. They can both entail the same legal rights, just call them different things so we can keep the traditional term of "marriage" for a man and a woman. That should satisfy everyone. If it doesn't then both sides are being way too picky.
I'm straight. At least -after 40+ years of life, I'm pretty darn sure I'm straight. The idea of being sexually attracted to another man kind of makes my skin crawl a little bit. I can't imagine passionately kissing another guy or being intimate -in most any sense of the word- with another guy. But I do have friends that are gay and it's obvious there's a lot (millions and millions) of people in the world who are attracted -sexually and emotionally- to the same sex. That's a fact, Jack. No way around it. So while I can't understand the attraction, I have to concede -based on everything I've seen, read, and witnessed- that being 'gay' is just the way some folks are born. They're wired differently. But just because they're different, doesn't mean we can't all get along or at least tolerate each in this great big world. You can't catch 'gay'-it's not an affliction- and you can't be raised to be 'gay' -at least that's what I believe. I'm not afraid of gay people taking over the world and making everyone else gay -that's ridiculous and impossible.
According to the laws of nature and those of most popular religions, man was made to mate with woman and vice versa. This is how new humans are created. If everyone were gay, eventually the human race would perish -there'd be no new babies made. Luckily, there's plenty of us guys who are constantly seeking sex with women and there are plenty of women out there seeking -or, at the very least- allowing sex with men. I believe -based on a lot of scientific evidence- that's the way it is meant to be. I would consider having sex with another man unnatural. I'm positive there are -and always will be- millions of other guys just like me. Accepting gay people and couples as upstanding, contributing members of society does not spell the end of morality or the human race as we know it. Quite to the contrary, it shows our ability to adapt and evolve in an ever-changing world.
Everyone has their own opinions and beliefs. To me, as long as your opinions and beliefs don't infringe upon my well-being or way of life, more power to you! I may not agree with you, but I will certainly tolerate you -so long as you don't try to make YOUR beliefs MY beliefs.
The very simple solution to this whole mess is in the word "marriage" and what that means to religious people versus what it means in a legal sense. So, for the sake of all the holier-than-thou religious people of the world who have taken it upon themselves to pass God's judgement on everyone and anyone who doesn't strictly adhere to their version of religion, just change the damn word from "marriage" to something less inflammatory like "legal domestic partnership". If you're gay, fine; you can call yourself "married" to your partner, but as far as the law is concerned -and for the sake of all religious zealots- just make two legally-defined terms. They can both entail the same legal rights, just call them different things so we can keep the traditional term of "marriage" for a man and a woman. That should satisfy everyone. If it doesn't then both sides are being way too picky.
I'm straight. At least -after 40+ years of life, I'm pretty darn sure I'm straight. The idea of being sexually attracted to another man kind of makes my skin crawl a little bit. I can't imagine passionately kissing another guy or being intimate -in most any sense of the word- with another guy. But I do have friends that are gay and it's obvious there's a lot (millions and millions) of people in the world who are attracted -sexually and emotionally- to the same sex. That's a fact, Jack. No way around it. So while I can't understand the attraction, I have to concede -based on everything I've seen, read, and witnessed- that being 'gay' is just the way some folks are born. They're wired differently. But just because they're different, doesn't mean we can't all get along or at least tolerate each in this great big world. You can't catch 'gay'-it's not an affliction- and you can't be raised to be 'gay' -at least that's what I believe. I'm not afraid of gay people taking over the world and making everyone else gay -that's ridiculous and impossible.
According to the laws of nature and those of most popular religions, man was made to mate with woman and vice versa. This is how new humans are created. If everyone were gay, eventually the human race would perish -there'd be no new babies made. Luckily, there's plenty of us guys who are constantly seeking sex with women and there are plenty of women out there seeking -or, at the very least- allowing sex with men. I believe -based on a lot of scientific evidence- that's the way it is meant to be. I would consider having sex with another man unnatural. I'm positive there are -and always will be- millions of other guys just like me. Accepting gay people and couples as upstanding, contributing members of society does not spell the end of morality or the human race as we know it. Quite to the contrary, it shows our ability to adapt and evolve in an ever-changing world.
Everyone has their own opinions and beliefs. To me, as long as your opinions and beliefs don't infringe upon my well-being or way of life, more power to you! I may not agree with you, but I will certainly tolerate you -so long as you don't try to make YOUR beliefs MY beliefs.
Which brings us to this whole thing with Chick-fil-A that has just gotten WAY out of hand. Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy spoke up a week or so ago and said that Chick-fil-A supports the traditional family unit of a man and a woman constituting a marriage. Since Mr. Cathy and, I assume, a lot of the other higher-up folks who run Chick-fil-A is a christian, I don't find his statement all that shocking. While I think it's kinda sad that Chick-fil-A has reportedly spent around $5 million to support groups trying to block gay marriage, it's certainly within their right to do so. There are MANY people -the majority of them citing religion as a basis- who are opposed to gay marriage. Fine. That's their opinion. And if they feel it's worthwhile to throw millions of dollars at the issue to try to get the rest of America to see thing their way, more power to them. The reality is that's never going to happen.
We're always going to have a certain number of people opposed to gay marriage and a certain number of people that support it. But now everyone on the pro-gay-marriage side of the fence wants you to boycott Chick-fil-A. Why? Have Chick-fil-A restaurants ever discriminated against gay customers? No. Have they ever come out and said "Gays not welcome here!"? Uh, no. Is everyone that works for Chick-fil-A anti-gay? Hell no! But it just so happens that the company's owner -Mr. Cathy is a devout Christian and has gone on record stating his belief that marriage is between a man and a woman. Fine. I don't see how that belief suddenly makes eating at Chick-fil-A evil. OK, so they use some of their profits to fight against gay marriage. That's not very shocking now is it. So I supposed if you're so vehemently in favor of gay marriage and you're determine get the whole world in your corner, not eating at Chick-fil-A will give you the satisfaction of knowing that none of your hard-earned money will be used against your cause. But, let me say this again: we're NEVER going to get to the point in this country where EVERYONE agrees on gay marriage.
