Marriage in our society has been defined as between a MAN and a WOMAN since the founding of this country.

If you allow gay marriage, you MUST allow incestual marriage and marriage between humans and animals. People who practice beastiality are a minority too, will you protect their rights?

If society, the MAJORITY thereof, defines marriage than Gay Marriage has already been shot down in the most sympathetic state in the Union. If you don’t like the opinion of the majority, then we can stick Mccain in the Whitehouse, though I really don’t think that would do us any good.

You’ll get your marriage eventually just like you’ll strip parents of their rights to discipline children. Meanwhile, we will make every attempt to block you PEACEFULLY and RESPECTFULLY.

Despite your sentiments, I will exercise my FIRST AMMENDMENT rights not just within the church walls, but in the streets also.

The idea that marriage is a religious institution is nonsense.  Someone wanted to know why the government even gets involved in it…

Where do you think the legal rights of marrige come from?  Churches cannot grant rights.  Marriage is a civil right, and the civil laws passed by the government is where the rights come from.  The government allows churches to perform the ceremony and recognizes as legal those ceremonies, but churches do not own or control the institution. 

The constitution also demands that all be treated equally and have equal opportunity to the pursuit of happiness.  Couple that with the fact that there are churches who support gay marriage, and it all equals a rather obvious conclusion that gay marriage must be allowed. 

We will have Gay marriage in this country folks..  as Gavin Newsome said - whether you like it or not.  Because that right to equal opportunity is our birthright.  And you cannot vote it away. 

Twenty years from now, most of you who oppose this will wonder how you could ever have been so shallow and cruel.

When our society started allowing interracial marriage, marriage was NOT redefined. As weird as it may sound, the black man was finally recognized as a human rather than a sub-human species. Read Darwin’s works like the Preservation of the Favored Races in the Struggle for Life (Origins of the Species) and his sequel, the Descent of Man. Black people were not considered as humans.

Again, society (including Seperate but Equal and pre-cursors like the 3/5 compormise) held that black people were not human.

Marriage was not redefined. Our society finally recognized black people as humans. No one here is suggesting gay people are any less human, but that we should uphold the original model of marriage.

Protests in LA today:  5 to 7pm at Mormon Temple and 7pm in West Hollywood.  Many California city halls on Saturday.  Sign up for alerts at http://www.afterprop8.org.

Oldernsin,

Interracial marriage is not in the constitution either, and all those laws banning it in the past are now unconstitutional.

Again, Civics 101, minorities are protected from the tyranny of the majority by the constitution and bill of rights.

It will be over turned

My marriage was not a religious ceremony.  It was not conducted in a church and not presided over by a member of any clergy.  Marriage is a union of two people recognized by the government to facilitate entering into contractual agreements, such as buying a house. And to give stability to raising children.  To form a partnership to deal with living in society.  It doesn’t have anything to do with religion.  And the majority does not rule.  There are laws to support the minority.  There are social mores that you may choose to regard in your lifestyle choices, but the majority of a society cannot decide for all how each will live.  You people who would choose for all need to get over it and mind your own business!

Marriage is a RELIGIOUS INSTITUION Olberman..

What ever happened to seperation between church and state? Why does the government have a say-so in this matter?

You can tell a closeted homosexual by how intolerant they are of laws to make things fairer for gay folks.  I’d say there are a few posters here who just need a good gay date.  Good luck getting out of the closet yawl!

To Janice:

”... This was voted by the people twice. Laws are made by the people that is the American way…”

It is not the American way.  The individual right to equal treatment has never been voted upon, and it is entirely un-American to even put equality for a group up for a vote when we have both state and federal constitutions that guarantee equality. 

And to DMFD, enjoying life - the pursuit of happiness is part of the Bill of Rights..  We have the right to the pursuit of happiness.  For most humans, that means creating a family.  We will fight this until full equality is granted. 

It is not the place of the voter to ‘give’ us these rights.  They already exist. 

And if you don’t like that… you can get over it.

dear dmfd

this isnt a sports match - it isnt about being a poor loser - its about ignorant fearful and poorly developed pseudo-citizens who think they have a right to intervene in the private lives of others and thereby protect their false and fragile self-esteem

you need a lot of quiet time to think about this.

and it is very heartening to see how many people have taken you to task.

oldernsin -

you must be so old you have forgotten your high school civics lessons.  You knowk, how the constitution and bill of rights are in place to protect the minority from abuse by the majority.  Which is why this will be back in the courts and overturned as unconstitutional.

I believe that gays should be allowed to have their own marriages, but that the government doesn’t necessarily have to accept it as valid. If marriage is not religious, then marriage is really only an expensive legal union with fancy clothes and cake.

...BUT MARRIAGE IS A RELIGIOUS CEREMONY.

Seperation of Church and State applies to this! The government needs to quit trying to legislate the church.

I don’t care what Olberman thinks…I don’t care what Limbaugh thinks.  Society has historically taken the position that marriage is between a man and a woman.  Of course there has always been sexual deviance from societal norms…but in spite of the level of deviation from “norm” a society has moved to…no society in history has called marriage anything other than between a man and a woman.

I know this is an emotive issue…but if I put some right wing talk show host up as my example of clear thinking on this issue…I’m sure I’d have all sorts of derisive tripe being hurled at me. 

Society has spoken….we don’t want the traditional definition of marriage changed.  Get over it.

Now if you want to have civil unions (call it whatever else you want…) and you want to march for the same taxation privileges and hospital visitation rights…etc…I’ll be happy to march along with you. However….I don’t believe the homosexual community should be able to be the supervisors of our dictionary any longer….you got “gay”, you got the “rainbow”...just leave the rest alone.

The vast majority of this country understands the definition of marriage. Learn it… deal with it. It isn’t going to change if society has a chance to vote on it.

To the guy that compared the ban on gay “marriage” to slavery….my gosh…read a book. It’s pathetic to compare the suffering of those who have been devastated by slavery down through the years to those who have do call their gay union something besides marriage….you humiliate your self to even begin to talk about the suffering slavery put on society.

The gay community is beginning to sound like the disgruntled McCain supporters…quit wining….America has spoken.

I wish someone had the funds to send you to visit the taliban and see if you still hold the same opinions. This was voted by the people twice. Laws are made by the people that is the American way. Actually the taliban are more likely to agree with YOU and say some guy behind a big desk decides for everyyone.

To DMFDM…

Pissing and moaning??  Do you not understand what prop 8 is really about? Its not about “protecting the family” or any of that bullsh*t, it’s based on bigotry, pure and simple. I dont agree with that Taliban statement, but this is a violation of civil rights and the contsitution, spiritually the same thing that black people fought for up until the late ‘60’s (and in many cases, still fight for).

Olbermann makes a great point… this world thrives on negativity, hate and oppression…. why would anyone want to VOTE for anyone else’s oppression. What does it matter to them (bigots). In a world where P of hetero-marriages dont work anyway, why would anyone want to deny that P for gay couples?
What does it matter to you?

To redefine marriage, one would have to define it.  It has a history of many definitions and still does today.  It means different things to different people and it changes and evolves continuously.  The reasons for marriage are as endless as the people who have participated in it. To talk of the sanctity of marriage is hypocritical at best.  When the mormon church talks of sanctity they’re referring to their beliefs and they’re attempting to legislate those beliefs to include everyone.  In other words, only their beliefs are correct and all must abide by them.  What definition are they trying to preserve?  The one where a man marries many women to attain the kingdom of heaven?  The one where young girls are married to older men?  The one they encourage return missionaries to jump into to begin their procreation duties?  Never mind if they are compatible with their chosen mate.  The divorce rate in the mormon church is just as high as society at large, so what makes them the experts on what a marriage should be?  This problem appears to be pretty easily solved to me.  Let each church define and regulate marriages within their boundaries.  But civil unions, ie: marriages conducted outside churches should be a matter of law.  And there should be no discrimination involved.  The same law applies to everyone.  We have got to stop allowing religion to rule our society.  We are no better than the taliban.

Those who funded the push for Prop 8 in California, the Mormons and the family of Blackwater, are merchants of hatred and lies. Yet they were able to fool the faithful, the Christians(?), to vote in favor of hate, in favor of bias and in favor of, yes, slavery. 

Slavery is evil and absolute wrong. It was, in the past, sanctioned by our laws. It is, today, sanctioned by the Bible. Yet thoughtful individuals, seeing the evil and hatred that slavery represents, defeated this institution and set the people free, law and the Bible nothwithstanding.

Today, gay marriage is our slavery. Today, hateful people use “law” and “religion” to control the lives of gay people. Just like they did with black people. And they are as wrong today as pro slavery people were back then.

Don’t let the Mormons or the rich conservatives tell you how to hate. Don’t let the Mormons or angry rich conservatives decide what is law in this country. Otherwise, no one will be free except the Mormons and rich conservatives.