To R.A. Earl—The more I thought about you calling me arrogant, the angrier I got. How dare you call me arrogant when it is you, sir, who displays the arrogance! Throughout the entire history of our country marriage has been defined as a union between one man and one woman. Here we are today, in the 21st Century, and now a small minority of people want to change that definition to include….whatever you want to include. The vast majority of Americans don’t want the definition of marriage changed, but liberals say that we are bigoted and unenlightened. Liberals say that we are denying a basic civil liberty to gays, but the law disagrees with them. Liberals say that they don’t care if the majority of Americans are enlightened enough to pass gay marriage or not. Liberals say that they will just go to the courts and get liberal judges to trump the will of the people. That, sir, is the very definition of arrogant and I resent the hell out of it!

who says family units have to be male female and chiled? I consider me , my fiancee, and my cat family? other people consider their cats or dogs as thier kids like I do. Nothing is wrong with haveing non traditional values. Nothing is wrong with other people having different ideas of family, and other prefer it that way if thier families were screwed up like mine was! There should be no concrete definition of family anyways since family is made up of the ones you truly love, others think that thier freinds are family as well.. Hondo, Mark and John are incorrect to assume family MUST be male, female and kids!

Letting gays marry would destroy our society. First, it would lead to a deemphasizing of the traditional family unit (man/woman/children) as the foundation of a stable society. Gay marriage opens the door to the idea of “family” being whatever you want it to be. Two women and a goat? That’s OK. A 35 year old man and his 11 year old cousin (male or female)?  Three gays and a baby? Hey, it’s all good! When you re-write the traditional definition of marriage to include gays marrying, there then can be no legal limits on marriage. The traditional family unit becomes scarcer and scarcer, and the children are raised in a secular progressive society where their own personal desires are supreme. I can’t think of many things that would be worse for society!
By the way, I did indeed say that we should not “let gays marry”, and, yes indeed, I do believe that “we the people” should make that decision. There is no fundamental right for gays to marry each other anywhere in the Constitution, therefore, it is the right of the people to decide if it would be a good idea to let gays marry. I’m sorry if that very simple legal concept gives any of you liberal wing nuts heartburn, but it is the law.
To Reuben—Thank you for living up to my every expectation with your mindless rant. Banning gay marriage is wrong because you hate George Bush and the war in Iraq? Good grief! If liberals were any dumber they would forget how to breathe!
Oh, and before I forget, thank you for trotting out that liberal “oldie but goodie”, equating gay marriage bans with slavery and with interracial marriage bans. I don’t think I could have slept tonight if one of you wacky liberals hadn’t played the race card! FACT: Christianity didn’t create slavery. Sinful human beings who denied the teachings of God and His Son Jesus Christ created slavery. FACT: Devout Christians here in the U.S. worked tirelessly for decades to get slavery outlawed. FACT: There is no correlation between interracial marriage and gay marriage. Why? First of all, because race is genetic and acting upon gay impulses is a choice. Second, because the Bible does not condemn interracial relations, but the Bible does condemn all forms of adultery (including homosexuality). FACT: Each and every time the question of allowing gays to marry has come up for a vote, it has been defeated. This has happened in red states and blue states, states that voted for kerry and states that voted for Bush, states that support the war on terror, and states who support “cut and run.” We the people, in our collective wisdom, don’t believe that gays should be allowed to marry. The only way gay marriage will ever become the law of the land is if liberals are successful in getting secular progressive, activist judges to impose this liberal agenda through judicial fiat. That’s why it’s so vitally important to keep electing conservative Republican presidents (just as 63 million people voted for in 2004).

To Hondo, #15461…

“...the great damage it would to to our country to let gays marry.”

Who says so? Please elaborate. Tell us EXACTLY what the “damage” would be. How would it impact the VAST majority of society?

BTW, who appointed YOU and those who think like you as AUTHORITIES to “let gays marry?” You don’t have the right to tell others who they can love and marry. You don’t have any legitimate power to NOT “let gays marry.” Since when do gays have to apply to YOU for permission to marry?

Finally… what you call your “Judeo-Christian” values and principles were in existence LONG BEFORE EITHER JUDAISIM or CHRISTIANITY were invented. They are UNIVERSAL values held by most intelligent people on the planet. Jews and Christians didn’t INVENT any of them… they just stole them from the “heathens” they were abusing while they were starting their religious cults.

What absolute IGNORANT ARROGANCE you display.

After reading the comments, it’s pretty obvious who the bigots are and it’s not the “radical liberls”, it’s the reactionary conservatives! So let me address some of the stupidity spouted out by the bigots here.
Hondo was talking about Judeo-Christian principles. Well I’m an atheist, I think they’re bullshit! Stop believing in mythology. He also said “Those principles teach that marriage is one man/one woman. It has always been so in this country.” One could say the same thing about slavery, are you advocating for that too? And uh what great damage would letting gays marry do to this country? Would they cause the deaths of thousands of Americans like your man Dubya already has?
Mark, I’ve never met any conservatives who hate homosexuals either. At least I don’t think I have. But you don’t have to meet them. Look at that guy who goes to military funerals and says god hates gays. “No one is saying that gays cannot sleep or have sex with one another”? Actually they are. The sodomy laws in some states ban anal and oral sex. And tell me, how are liberals imposing the “gay lifestyle” on your society? Are they trying to make you gay? I’m not even gonna address the rest of your post because it is so ignorant and idiotic. As for the majority of blacks being against gay marriage? Look at how the black community for the most part shuns homosexuality and gay black man have to be on the “down low”. They’re more ashamed of what they are than gay white men.
I think Hondo, Mark, and John are all the same person.
I thought Washington was a liberal state. Just goes to show that America as a whole is becoming a real backward country.

Too bad Washington state lost their courage and took the step backwards. Times of war, instilled fear and eroding of even basic human rights are not noted for their progressive policies in any sphere.

The denial of human rights doesn’t stop on its own. Once a government has taken a freedom away, it’s pretty hard to get it back.

As usual, the argument against gay marriage usually descends into the “what goes where” argument, although most gay sexual behaviours are practiced by straight practitioners as well. There is no “gay” lifestyle just as there is no “straight” lifestyle. People who protest that they “don’t care” what other people do often care very much, and may even be attracted to it against their will.

Judeo-Christian principles accepted slavery for centuries as well. That doesn’t make it right.

The Pew Research Group did a study recently. One of the questions had to do with gay marriage.

Their conclusions:

- Half of Americans (51%) continue to oppose legalizing gay marriage, but this number has declined significantly from 63% in February 2004, when opposition spiked following the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision and remained high throughout the 2004 election season. Opposition to gay marriage has fallen across the board, with substantial declines even among Republicans.

- “Strong” opposition to gay marriage, which surged in 2004, has ebbed to a new low.

- White evangelical Protestants are the only major group in which a majority still strongly opposes gay marriage, but even here the intensity of feeling has receded somewhat.

- Opposition remains strongest among white evangelical Protestants, 56% of whom strongly oppose legalizing gay marriage, down from 65% two years ago.

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=273

Nothing there about 80% oppostion by black Americans. (comment # 15492 - Mark).

If someone opposes it, and only 56% do, they are most likely to be white evangelical Christians, the ones who are probably driving the agenda against it. The other major players are probably the insurance companies, I agree (#15504 - Rick).

When in doubt, follow the money - and the bigotry. That’s what kept slavery going for so long.

Take a look at how many lobbyists from the insurance companies were in Olympia recently and it will tell you why this bill was upheld.  It wasn’t for moral issues or anything like that.  It was for money.  Think about it.  Who does it affect directly if two gay people get married?  You may not like it, or prefer it for your kids, but it is a fact that there are gay people in the world who want to be able to get affordable health care and leave their estate to their spouse legally.  It doesn’t affect anyone but insurance providers and corporations who have to come up with the money to support this.  I think people get too excited about something that makes no difference at all.  They thought it would be the end of the world when it became legal for black people to marry white people.  I guess the world goes on.  If the Supreme Court based their decision on religious beliefs, then that is illegal.  So what is the issue?  Money.

Bigoted and Hatred? I have yet to meet a conservative who hates homosexuals. No one is saying that gays cannot sleep or have sex with one another. I couldn’t care less who or what you sleep with. What bothers me is when radical liberals seek to impose on our society the gay lifestlye and tell us that its legitimate. You’re telling us to go against our natural, instinctive, and inherrent disgust towards homosexual behaviour. Gay marriage has nothing to do with “equality.” Gays are allowed get married. They just can’t married the person of the same sex. I guess all of us are equally “discriminated” since were are all prohibited from marrying people of the same sex. Just because the governments prohits siblings, fathers and daugters, mothers and sons from getting married, does not mean that its discrimination. This is what’s currently going on. If I were to claim discrimantion, it would be akin to what the proponents of gay marriage are espousing. Think about it. Who better than African Americans, who truly have been victims of discrimination, can attest to being victims of it. Over 80 percent of blacks in American do not believe that gays should be married. Doesn’t this tell you something?

I know, and tis country is going down the tubes becuase of intolerant conservatives who cannot accpet anyone different them themselves. They condemn anyone who isn’t one with thier belifs. I think anyone should be able to have thier own sexual freedoms and be able to express themselves freely. No one is going to take that away from me!

I think we should do away with the social pressures we have today.

Mr. Earl—You have things a little backwards when you refer to bigots who are against gay marriage. I would contend that that it is the gay marriage proponents who are the bigots. I’ll explain.
America was founded upon Judeo-Christian principles. Read the writings of our Founding Fathers and it is impossible to come to any other conclusion. Those principles teach that marriage is one man/one woman. It has always been so in this country. What radical liberals are attempting to do is to declare that these Judeo-Christian principles are stupid (that’s called bigotry, sir) and that we should be enlightened enough to alter the timeless definition of marriage to mean whatever radical liberals say it means. Washington is by no means a hotbed of conservative activity, but they are clear thinking enough to recognize the great damage it would to to our country to let gays marry.

If you think maintaining the constituional intent of the Founding Fathers of this country is ‘hate speak’, then you must certainly be a flaming homo yourself.

Get help.

.

How can such a BIG country with such HUGE potential be populated with people with so LITTLE awareness and appreciation for the richness of culture that comes with embracing the diversity inherent in all human beings?

There’s something seriously wrong-headed about the USA these days. The bunker mentality being led by Luddites is taking hold like an epidemic… build walls, close borders, hunker down, demand conformity/banish diversity… it’s almost as if 300,000,000 people, with the most lethal armed forces on the planet, feel under seige. Reminds me of an elephant’s hysteria at the squeak of a mouse. It conjure images of Mohammed Ali cringing on the floor pleading not to be hit again!

It’s pathetic to watch the deliberate fading of the American Dream.

Don’t worry gay & lesbian folk. There are enlightened countries (Canada and Belgium for starters) in the world where the quality of life and fullness of opportunity is every bit the equal of the USA that would be delighted to welcome you both to get married and to settle down. Consider moving and let the myopic hypocrits that have hijacked America stew in their own fetid juices.