So...

[Chaerophon]

Gay partners should be entitled to the same 'benefits' from the government as are those who are straight. The government shouldn't be the institution that imparts a religious title, with all of the implications that go along with it, in the first place. In my opinion, in such a pluralist society as is the modern USA, they shouldn't have a role in marriage aside from the granting of civic union; leave the deeper meaning to those who are better equipped to impart it.

In the words of P.E. Trudeau, the state should have no place in the bedroom. The government is not a religious institution; in fact, one of its purposes should be to protect dissident minorities from the kind of persecution that southern protestants, et al, are levelling at gays in the US. If it turns out that gays are "wrong" in the end, the CC and other such pressure groups will be vindicated as they gaze down at them from the pearly gates. Until then, if they're not hurting anyone, leave them alone.

Oh yeah, and I don't much care for the argument that they are hurting people via the "moral infiltration" of the States. Since that moral standard is entirely out of keeping with the principle of "negative liberty-oriented" civic nationalism upon which modern North American democracies are founded, it was inappropriate in the first place, but an obvious necessity in the rigorously religious era of the 19th century. Times change, and the principles of civic equality and pluralism that those early conventions of state-conducted religious rites violated remain as important and viable today as they were then.

By all means, religion should have a place in the world of marriage. The problem is that the political realm is no place for an excess of religion.

EDIT: Forgot to add: it is a such an obvious red herring that I should hope that it will be a non-issue in the upcoming election. When it boils down to it, marriage laws are state jursidiction anyways, are they not? Should be left to them; the US is too big and too complex to make blanket legislation regarding such matters.

By the way, what the hell is Nader thinking!?!