After the Vows

sjbrock80? Please publish the name and location of your company so any free thinking , decent people with unbigoted moral values can boycott your company. And, I can only hope that someone you are planning to fire due to your ignorant beliefs knows who you are and is reading this so the can launch a preemptive legal battle against you law breaking mentality.

This issue, like the newly poplular statewide smoking bans, is fine to have an opinion about. But most people don't weigh the consequences of who or what will be affected in the long term.

The smoking ban in Colorado, for instance, sounded like a great idea to non-smokers or people on the fence. Since the ban has gone into effect, many bars, bowling alleys, and restaurants have gone out of business in Colorado Springs. The historic gambling town of Cripple Creek has suffered huge losses. Is this what people wanted by voting for a smoking ban? Probably not, but it's happening.

The same may happen with gay marriage acceptance. Many employers will be forced to pay out much more money on their company healthcare policies and it will effect jobs. It's only a matter of time...

to apply for spousal benefits when they get home to Tennessee, which bans same-sex marriage. "I'd like to put Derek on my health plan when his insurance expires in November," says Blaudow, a biologist with a biotech firm. "If that becomes an issue, then we'll do whatever it takes to exercise our rights. Why not push ahead and be at the forefront?"
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This is really what it is about medical benefits - because of the health problems many gay males have.

I want to put my mother on my medical plan - who do I contact so that I can say its my civil right to do so?

Today Arnold Schwarzenegger kept his promise not to challange gay marriages while turnning a blind eye to
the Federal Government stand on no same sex marriages. The majority rule has no meanning to Arnold, a
law in place has no meanning to Arnold, proposistion 22 has no meanning to Arnold. However his wifes rel-
ative in Massachutes the other gay state has the same disregard for Federal Laws and broken promises to the majority of people who elected them into office. You see in Hollywood a very active gay community one
realises that after the Govenor returns to pictures he'll need support for his next picture, "How I let down the
people who elected me Govenor". Arnold plays the role of a republican govenor who secretly is a domo-
crat like is wife an undercover agent for the state of Massachutes. They tell you one thing but you have to
decode the real answer by looking up the ACLU's membership of liberal judges that will support hot topics
like homosexual marriages, illegal immigrants, drug king pins, anti-christian and anti-God supporters who
pose as real life individuals deserving a chance at reverse discrimination. Yes, Arnold it is all there in the script. I e-mailed you three times and received your standard response, you forgot the one about majority
rule like in Austria where the law counts for something!

I have no beef if gay couples settle for civil unions.
Leave the word "marriage" for the union of a man and a woman.
If I mentioned to someone that I'm married, I don't want to be asked if it's with a man or a woman.

It was once a radical concept to believe that a woman could choose her own husband. Arranged marriages were the norm and part of tradition. Fathers paid dowries and woman were like property. But because some woman rebelled, rejecting a life in a loveless marriage, this tradition, steeped in misogyny and discrimination, has made it's way to the ash heap of history. It is not a dissimilar situation here. Gay and lesbians long faced the prospect of loveless marriages, marriages of convenience, a life in the shadows of the closet - often with disastrous results for all involved. Only in the past few decades have people stood up and rebelled against such cruel fate. And so it shall be once more, that this "tradition," steeped in discrimination, will end. Marriage for gay and lesbian couples will be legal. In so doing, the institution of marriage will not be weakened, but strengthened, for it will more be inclusive, honest and true.

Some important points for those of you who oppose gay marriage:

1) This is not about religion. California's decision to permit gay marriages does not mean gay people are getting married in your church. Your church has every right to continue to prohibit gays from getting married. This is about the government granting gay couples rights such as being able to file taxes together and make decisions for each other if one spouse falls ill. No one is trying to change what you believe. The government has just extended rights to a new group of people.

2) Some people think the California decision was rendered by "activist judges," or judges that re-write the law or judges who go against the will of the people. In 1954, many people in Kansas accused judges of thwarting the will of the people and re-writing the law by ending school segregation and insisting that black children be taught in the same schools as white children. Many people of that time looked upon those judges as "activist judges." I believe that no ones civil rights should be determined by a popular vote.

3) Those of you who oppose gay marriage are the same people who:
--41 years ago opposed the Supreme Court's ruling that blacks and whites could marry
--54 years ago opposed the Court's school de-segregation ruling
--88 years ago opposed granting women the right to vote
--138 years ago opposed granting black men the right to vote
--143 years ago opposed the abolition of slavery

All of the above civil rights milestones were seen by some people as religious blasphemy. Some people were certain the moral fiber of our nation was falling apart. But it wasn't. And gay marriage won't hurt the nation or children or religion or the government. This is simply evolution and it's hard for some because it's different and unfamiliar. But let's let history be our guide. Allowing gays to marry is simply the right thing to do.

The stupidest thing about people who are against gay marraige is that they're infringing on an area where they don't belong... why do they care?! Is it in their life? They're rather be cruel, inhuman, unChristian bigots who don't think anyone but themselves should be allowed to have LEGAL RIGHTS AND BENEFITS. Separation of Church and State, PLEASE!
I hate how unChristian all of these so called Christian groups act... whatever happened to Love your Neighbor? Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone? No, instead they think they should be able to tell the whole world how to act, what to do, how to be.... they're putting themselves in the place of God, saying that THEY know what He wants, thinks, how God wants the world to be. It's downright sacriligeous really.

And to sjbrock, let's see, in the long term, people are still going to get married. Gay or straight. And so it's not going to effect healthcare policies and jobs THAT much, MOST national healthcare companies already have "domestic partnership" coverage, for people who can't get married or just live together. I know, because I work for one. Welcome to the real world. Not everyone gets married, not everyone who doesn't/can't get married is gay, and people are way too involved in other people's business.