I think he's arguing it on a courts vs. legislatures standpoint.
Looking *just* at how court rulings went and how legislation was written, which is it paralleling better at present?
I know. My point is that unlike the anti-choice crowd, the homophobic crowd will dissipate over the years. Especially as same sex marriage is unlikely, IMO, to have any negative affect whatsoever whereas abortion has the effect of terminating what some people consider a human life.
I have a few questions that I wonder if anyone here has the answers to. What is the substantive difference between marriage and civil union? If they are for all intents and purposes synonymous other than the same/opposite sex angle, will the effect of an amendment prohibiting same sex marriage be that it in fact outlaws civil unions as well because they _are_ synonymous.
If you do outlaw same sex marriage but allow same sex civil unions, what keeps people from calling a civil union a marriage? Are we going to have marriage police arresting people for using improper terminology?
Here's the way I see it. It is not illegal to love someone that is the same sex as yourself and it does no harm to society to do so. Quite to the contrary, I would think that the more solid, loving relationships a society has, the better. If it is not illegal then withholding a benefit for one that you bestow on another _is_ illegal. Equal protection. If we amend the constitution to outlaw same sex marriages, we will be codifying bigotry (again.)
I think it's probably true that it is beneficial for a child to have both male and female roll models, but I'd like to see the empirical evidence that proves that children raised by same sex parents have more problems than children in traditional relationships before making a judgment one way or the other. It's my guess that because the number of unwanted children in same sex relationships is likely to be next to nil, that on average, they will fare _better_ not worse than children in traditional relationships.
Basically, I think that the more stable, loving relationships there are, the better, and that whether you call them civil unions or marriages makes no difference.
-- Doug _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
