I see where you are coming from, Nick, but it kind of strays into that "separate but equal" line of thinking that the SF mayor has cited in his press statements.

"Straight marriage/gay marriage" would be a new kind of sexual segregation, just another way to classify gays and lebsian couples as "close, but not quite."

Of course, there are men's rooms and ladies' rooms, aren't there? We have that separate but equal idea functioning in that respect, no? ;)

Gays and lesbians are different from heterosexuals because of who they are sexually attracted to. In the final analysis, that's really all the difference there is. Is that so great a difference that it cannot be allowed to join in the legal, secular representation of marriage? It has to be man/woman only, not man/man, woman/woman?

Marriage is an institution as old as human civilization, but it has been one that's evolved. How long as it been in America since people of different classes could marry one another without dire social scorn? Or people of different ethnicities and faiths marry and not incite a lynch mob to chase after them? Marriage has adapted and changed with the times in the USA.

Yes, in all its incarnations, marriage has been about putting together a man and a woman...to make a legitimate contract between two people in the eyes of society.

Contract. Very romantic, no? But that's what it is! :D

2 people can say they are a couple and live together, but unless they get complex legal documents drawn up, they're just roommates with no binding social relevance.

People who are married claim a legal relationship that's deceptively simple upon the surface but carries a great responsibility and distinction in the eyes of others.

New concepts are frightening. As much as we want change, when we stare at change in the face it's extremely daunting.

I can understand from that perspective why many ordinary people don't hold to the idea of marriage between men and women. (I believe politicans and religious leaders are operating on completely different levels, and for them its economics and dogma.)

I'm not asking that the Catholic Church or any organized religion to sanctify gay marriages. Those are worldwide institutions of faith and memory that cannot be forced to adopt a mode of thinking they're not comfortable with, no matter how much people would like them to change. You don't force God to do things your way or the highway!

I'm cocnerned about the secular, legal aspects of marriage for Americans. We have the right to ask for changes and for rights that would otherwise be denied because tradition and history have said one thing to be the only thing for all time.