I have joined the fight for gay and lesbian rights.
I sent an e mail to all my family and associates (who I think would not just fall over dead) asking them to sign the million for marriage petition.

After signing the petition myself (electronically online) in the space provided me to send a form letter to friends, I added a note

P.S. from L___ _____:
Remember when our parents friends thought inter racial marriage and equal schooling for blacks was weird? Our parents thought differently. They had some reservations at first, but after they saw the bigotry for what it was, they courageously stood for civil rights. Let us do the same in our generation. All of us have known some of "them" as co workers, relatives or friends. Gays and Lesbians were there to fight for equal pay for women. Let us men and women be there for them now. Sign the petition.
Again I thank you.

Here's the link Million for Marriage if you'd care to sign it yourself. After signing and forwarding it takes you to a donation page. You do not have to make a donation. You have already signed the petition.

This is a very small thing for me to do. But it is a very big step for me. I was really too young to do much in the civil rights movement of the 60's. And I was flat AWOL from the women's movement. I let others do the hard work and reaped the benefits.
I just missed a protest rally in Boise. (My mother always did say I'd be late to my own funeral.) But tattered forgetful human that I am, I am out to make a better world. Sounds funny, but this goes right along with my lifelong habit of donating tapes and books to the library, and our family habit of picking up an extra holiday turkey to donate. You don't have to have the bully pulpit or be Bill Gates to make a difference.
Climbing down off my soap box. Going to get some BenGay cause my arm is sprained from patting myself on the back.
But hey! Feels good.

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Jesus Was A Liberal

If a certain course of action makes the mouth-breathers furious, then that’s a good policy. – The Practical Environmentalist

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"No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities."
...Christian Nestell Bovee

When they come up with something that abolishes legalized marriage altogether, let me know. I'll surely sign up for that...

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Jaded much?

In that two people should be allowed legal benefits not afforded others simply because they profess 'whatever' for one another ... yes, I suppose I'm jaded.

We've been through this argument before elsewhere.

I don't begrudge homosexuals wanting the same rights as heterosexuals. To me there is nothing special either way about sexual orientation or any other 'couple', so we should stop giving them rights we do not give others.

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I have heard this sort of argument before, and it's intriguing.
And Michael, please correct me if I assume or state something incorrectly.

Essentially, the position being presented is more fundamental to the benefits themselves. More an issue of expanding the benefits to more people.

Some people argue that government should get out of the "marriage" business altogether and just perform "civil unions". (Thus, the name "marriage" would be up to individual religions to use as they please.)
I think Michael is presenting something that goes a few steps farther than that, whereby it's not even a "civil union" situation, but the BENEFITS themselves still exist and are open to a wider variety of people. Open to gay couples, straight couples, and MORE...

Suppose you have two "spinster" sisters. Obviously they can't "marry" due to the sibling relationship between the two.
But nevertheless, they could benefit from the law stating "This person has some level of assumed *power of attorney* in case of medical emergency. This person has the right to visit me in the hospital, and cannot be denied. This person is the assumed heir of my estate." etc, etc...

Setting up these legal realities can be costly, and as some cases demonstrate even setting up a legal document does not guarantee that the legal request is honored. While the two people are not "sexually" involved, they ARE committed to each other. The duo sincerely wants this reality, and it's about their personal freedoms for their wishes to be honored.

Under Michael's scenario, gay couples, straight couples, and non-sexually involved couples would all be eligible for the benefits. It would be about the legal right, and not necessarily involve a couple's intimate status.

If I have mis-stated, please correct.

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"As in a poker game where the chips were concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing, when their credit ran out, the game stopped."
--Marriner S. Eccles, FDR's fed Chairman. (1951)

Uh, for the most part correctly stated. A duo/trio/ whatever. I can envision parent/child arrangements as well.

One big issue is we have also entwined entitlement programs into 'marriage', which truly makes no sense. The federal government taxes you with the promise of eventually supplementing your retirement income or your spouse's, yet the federal government seeming has no say in what constitutes a spouse (since states issue marriage licenses).

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