Glad to hear a rephrasing of my arguments. Same sex marriage is essentially an equal protection argument. You cannot have selective rights based on some feature of the person.
Besides I think a good argument can be made that by having priests, ministers, pastors, rabbis, imams etc conducting state sanction marriage violates the premise of the separation of church and state, and provides an unacceptable state sanction of a religion. Accordingly if people want to get married, they can get a civil union from any JP etc when they get their marriage license. If they want the religious ceremony they can have that as well. larry On 7/7/05, G <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > A state cannot and should not refuse to grant a civil union between two > people based solely on race, religion, or gender. > A religion can refuse to administer one of it's sacraments to anybody it > wants. > > This issue becomes so simple once you divorce (pun intended) the word > "marriage" from the concept of "legal civil union." Your own values and > beliefs can be represented, and even enforced if you will, within the scope > of your religious beliefs in the form of worship and the bestowing of > sacraments (rites). > > But the right to equal protections and oppurtunities under the LAW simply > cannot, and should not, be limited based on race, religion, gender, or > sexual orientation. > > See how easy that is? > > > But you can - Here's the question you have to answer: If your Gay > > neighbors get married, how does it inhibit your pursuit of happiness? > > > > If it doesn't but you still oppose Gay marriage as law then you'd say > > that your preferences should be imposed on all US citizens. That > > isn't liberty but your version of acceptable lifestyle enforced by the > > police. People that favor this state imposed oppression are call > > Social Conservatives. > > > > Voting doesn't indicate liberty (most dictators are voted into office, > > e.g., Iran), the principles you uphold do. If you start > > discriminating amongst freedoms, then you're allowing oppression. > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:163338 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
