Here is my 2 cents;

First off I was raised following one major rule they taught in school
back in the day, "Treat others the way you wish to be treated."

So, lets look at this from a different point of veiw, lets say for
example in some alternate universe, Same Sex Marriage was the norm.
Women married women and men married men. Now in this alternate
universe you for some reason, don't have an attraction to the same sex
as the majority does, but you find your self attracted to the opposite
sex. You meet this person and fall in love, you live together for many
years. living the life you have always felt was right. years pass and
your "partner" is aging and is having medical problems. You find out
they are passing on in to (religious preference here). Your partner
was the bread winner of the house and you are a house "partner", which
is fine because your partner has made lots of money and invested
wisely for your future. You start signing medical paperwork for
treatments and the such. Your partner passes on and you grieve. The
family of the dearly departed remove you from "thier" home,

considering you a "bad chapter" in your partners life. They also want
the money, which by law you have no rights, maybe the will wasn't
filled in correctly or out of date, whatever. You have just lost
someone you loved dearly, lost your home, and no means to pay for all
the treatment you signed for because the family took all the money.

You didn't get to sit at your partners bed side during the worst of it
because you weren't family or relative.

thing that would have made this all the much easier is marriage.

alot of people are saying that marriage is an institution of the
church, this I believe is incorrect, for the simple reason, that as
soon as the government started recognizing marriage as a legal binding
contract, it stopped belonging to the church.

back to you and your sorted tale, you don't want to change peoples
views, beliefs, or ask for thier acceptance. All you want is the same
rights and freedoms as everyone else.

There was alot of talk about 6k years ago, well I don't know about
back then, I wasn't alive, and I don't care. I do hear alot about
being "oppressed", forced to live a certain way. We came to America to
escape the church of england, what if someone said, "but it's been
like this for centuries!". I don't think that would have slowed them
down much.

I do disagree with "civil unions" I think it's a poloticians way of
avoiding the issue, as well as a way of giving the "big businesses" a
possible "loop hole" for having to pay benifits to surviving spouses
as well as other monies. This is a common decency issue. They have as
much right as you or I do to marry and live with whom they want with
out being treated as a minority. I do predict this will be legalized
when the supreme court rules, which probably won't be until after the
presidential election. for those that feel it's wrong to allow same
sex marriages, don't do it, and ignore those that do, I'm sure they
won't mind.

you get to choose your religion, not your sexual orientation. You
choose where you live, not who love.

Here is my 2 cents;

First off I was raised following one major rule they taught in school
back in the day, "Treat others the way you wish to be treated."

So, lets look at this from a different point of veiw, lets say for
example in some alternate universe, Same Sex Marriage was the norm.
Women married women and men married men. Now in this alternate
universe you for some reason, don't have an attraction to the same sex
as the majority does, but you find your self attracted to the opposite
sex. You meet this person and fall in love, you live together for many
years. living the life you have always felt was right. years pass and
your "partner" is aging and is having medical problems. You find out
they are passing on in to (religious preference here). Your partner
was the bread winner of the house and you are a house "partner", which
is fine because your partner has made lots of money and invested
wisely for your future. You start signing medical paperwork for
treatments and the such. Your partner passes on and you grieve. The
family of the dearly departed remove you from "thier" home,
considering you a "bad chapter" in your partners life. They also want
the money, which by law you have no rights, maybe the will wasn't
filled in correctly or out of date, whatever. You have just lost
someone you loved dearly, lost your home, and no means to pay for all
the treatment you signed for because the family took all the money.
You didn't get to sit at your partners bed side during the worst of it
because you weren't family or relative. Life is sucking. the only
thing that would have made this all the much easier is marriage.

alot of people are saying that marriage is an institution of the
church, this I believe is incorrect, for the simple reason, that as
soon as the government started recognizing marriage as a legal binding
contract, it stopped belonging to the church.

back to you and your sorted tale, you don't want to change peoples
views, beliefs, or ask for thier acceptance. All you want is the same
rights and freedoms as everyone else.

There was alot of talk about 6k years ago, well I don't know about
back then, I wasn't alive, and I don't care. I do hear alot about
being "oppressed", forced to live a certain way. We came to America to
escape the church of england, what if someone said, "but it's been
like this for centuries!". I don't think that would have slowed them
down much.

I do disagree with "civil unions" I think it's a poloticians way of
avoiding the issue, as well as a way of giving the "big businesses" a
possible "loop hole" for having to pay benifits to surviving spouses
as well as other monies. This is a common decency issue. They have as
much right as you or I do to marry and live with whom they want with
out being treated as a minority. I do predict this will be legalized
when the supreme court rules, which probably won't be until after the
presidential election. for those that feel it's wrong to allow same
sex marriages, don't do it, and ignore those that do, I'm sure they
won't mind.

you get to choose your religion, not your sexual orientation. You
choose where you live, not who love.