[Vision2020] Same Sex Marriage Debate pointless.

[Mike Finkbiner]

I completely agree with Paul.   We would be better off  if we separated the 
contractual and legal relationship between people from the religious.

One of the frustrating things about this country is the tendancy to use a 
particular religious perspective to set public policy.  That's one of the 
real concerns I have with the proposed constitutional amendment in Idaho.  
At first glance it appears to ban civil union as an option.

We have a long way to go in determining how gay people are going to live in 
the United States, and I think it's foolish to ban options based on 
prejudice and ignorance before we have had a chance to see how things work 
out.

- Mike

PS - This month is the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution.  A 
struggle for freedom can involve sacrifice and take a long time, but it 
appears to be part of what makes us human.

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Date sent:      	Fri, 20 Oct 2006 20:33:45 -0700
From:           	Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com>
To:             	vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject:        	Re: [Vision2020] [Bulk] Re:  Same Sex Marriage Debate 
pointless.

So call them "Civil Unions", make them cover the secular aspects of
"marriage" (such as death benefits, tax  breaks, etc), and make them
relatively wide open for people to get.  Make it a policy that a
"marriage" performed in the normal way automatically carries with it a
"civil union".  Don't force any religion to have to marry two people
of the same gender if it's against their doctrine to do so.  Limit
civil unions to one per person and make them easy to stop when both
parties agree on it.  The civil union would be a contract that would
carry with it specific terms agreed upon by both parties on what it
covers and how it may be dissolved.  In a way, it's just a more
forceful prenuptual agreement.

Let two people of the same gender get a civil union if they want to.
That way those who don't think it's a valid marriage shouldn't mind -
they aren't married before any god in a spiritual sense, yet they get
the same secular benefits that everyone else does.  Churches that
don't have hangups about it can perform gay marriages, those that do
can still feel huffily superior.

The only way to get through this in my view is to separate the civil
from the spiritual.

Paul

Mike Finkbiner
mike_l_f at hotmail.com

The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle 
forever.

                                                  - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky