Are you serious? I doubt any gay person cares what it is called so long as they can unite and have the same rights and protections that married people have. The fact is that civil unions are not available everywhere and even where it is available, it is, at best, a watered-down version of marriage instead of the same institution with a different name.

Isn't it enough for the religious people in this country that gays will never be able to have a religious ceremony? I will never understand how people can enjoy a benefit at the same time they fight to keep others from enjoying the same benefit.

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"George W. Bush surrounds himself with smart people the way a hole surrounds itself with a donut." —Dennis Miller

The problem exists then, that whatever you call it, the union of a gay couple needs to be recognized by the entire nation for it to be equal. It already is referred to as something else. Gay marriage. Can't be any more blunt than that. There cannot be equality by making this a states issue, as some suggest.

As for the correlation of gay marriage to inter-racial marriage, both were setup in an attemp to ban them at one time. This is where the similarity lies. At one time inter-racial marriage was not accepted at all. In fact to this day my girlfriend and I get dirty looks from old men and women sometimes. For what? What is the big deal? How does my being with her hurt these people, or for that matter society? It doesn't. Similarly gay marriage does nothing to hurt these people or society as a whole.

I agree that some people do make a concious decision to be gay. I can't account for these people. But I would have to argue that the majority don't choose it. One of my sisters friends had the sh*t kicked out of him, when he told his dad he was gay. He knew how anti-gay his father was, but couldn't hide who he was any longer. He took that beating because he had to, not because he wanted to.

Civil unions were going to be offered as a compromise in Massachusetts, but GLAD (and many individuals) protested stating they wanted marriage, not civil unions.

I can never tell if you are being serious or if you are playing devils advocate.

For obvious reasons.

Well I would think this would be a fairly straight forward question for americans - since america is made up of so many cultures, I'd doubt if anyone would bat an eyelid at it. I live in Ireland, and it's nearly unheard off to see a different race nevermind knowing of inter-racial marriage (my eyes are opened at the moment as im at university in london and theres more races there thans imaginable) I'd don't see anything wrong with unions of this type. After all, we are all humans, theres no difference because of skin colour, and infact you find those those of another race, seem to be more attractive than your own.

I feel about inter-racial marriage the same way I feel about same sex marriage. Nothing wrong with it, and it's none of my business. In fact, I could go one further and say that inter-racial dating/marriage is a very good thing as it gets people to experience different cultures and allows them to grow and become more open. Besides, as a white dude I am of the opinion that Asian women are super hot!

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WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

The reason was that the rights included within civil unions were not the same as those included within marriage.

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"George W. Bush surrounds himself with smart people the way a hole surrounds itself with a donut." —Dennis Miller

It is fading away, but for a while there, it was a huge issue. My correlation to gay marriage I feel is quite logical. At one time inter-racial relationships were thought of as taboo, and in most cases people viewed it as morally wrong, many still do. Similarly to the issue of homosexuality. While neither is for everyone, to each his own, it is wrong to make claim that either is wrong. If you love someone of a different race, you can't hide it. You can't keep it to yourself. Same goes for gays. You can't help who you fall in love with. You can't hide your desires. The two issues are indirectly related. While we are moving more toward accepting inter-racial marriages and/or relationships, we are moving away from accepting gay relationships and marriages.