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ORIGINAL: dcnovice

FR

Sorry to hog the thread, but I can't resist sharing this either.

It's a father's note to his son:


Nate,

I overheard your phone conversation with Mike last night about your plans to come out to me. The only thing I need you to plan is to bring home OJ and bread after class. We are out, like you now. I’ve known you were gay since you were six, I’ve loved you since you were born.

-- Dad

P.S. Your mom and I think you and Mike make a cute couple.


http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/dad-s-love-letter-to-gay-teenage-son-goes-viral-174541783.html

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ORIGINAL: dcnovice
in my years as a gay man

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ORIGINAL: FunCouple5280

Better late than never.... And whatever the reason for the change of heart is irrelavent, we shouldn't scare him back to his old opinions. Let the theocrats demonstrate why he should have never sided with them in the first place.

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ORIGINAL: kdsub

There are plenty of fanatics to go around on both sides…I just do not understand why gays demand to have a union and rights be called a marriage.

What difference does it make what it is called as long as the rights are exactly the same? If gays want to be legal partners and have a church wedding fine…what difference does it make if it is called a civil union or a marriage? The results are the same and should carry the same moral values and dignity.

Why must they demand that which insults millions of Americans when it will serve no useful purpose? What is the big deal about NOT calling two separate things by the same name?

I am playing devils advocate here and will take heat for it but it is the way, at least at this time, the majority of Americans feel...at least I believe they feel...could be wrong and time are changing.

Butch

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ORIGINAL: kdsub

There are plenty of fanatics to go around on both sides…I just do not understand why gays demand to have a union and rights be called a marriage.

What difference does it make what it is called as long as the rights are exactly the same? If gays want to be legal partners and have a church wedding fine…what difference does it make if it is called a civil union or a marriage? The results are the same and should carry the same moral values and dignity.

Why must they demand that which insults millions of Americans when it will serve no useful purpose? What is the big deal about NOT calling two separate things by the same name?

I am playing devils advocate here and will take heat for it but it is the way, at least at this time, the majority of Americans feel...at least I believe they feel...could be wrong and time are changing.

Butch

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what difference does it make if it is called a civil union or a marriage?

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The results are the same and should carry the same moral values and dignity.

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Why must they demand that which insults millions of Americans when it will serve no useful purpose?

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To borrow from Louis Armstrong, if you have to ask, you'll never know.

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ORIGINAL: kdsub
I think if tazzy were here there would be polls galore... I think it is really about 50 50 now and those in favor has been increasing over the years.

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Just because someone says they believe gays should have the right to marry...does not mean they like the idea or the use of the word marriage. We are still a divided country. For now the aim should be equal rights and perhaps down the road a name change.

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ORIGINAL: dcnovice

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What is to be gained by allowing homosexual marriage?

In a word, dignity.*

Some of you have heard this story before, and I apologize for repeating myself. But it's the best answer I know to this question.

In 2006, my Aunt Brenda--witty, wise, wonderful, and amazingly kind to yours truly during some rough patches--died in upstate New York (which had not yet achieved marriage equality). Seconds after she flatlined, a doctor burst into the room, demanding to speak to the next of kin. Brenda's beloved partner, Melanie, who had seen Brenda through an agonizing decline at the hands of a brutal affliction called multiple system atrophy, introduced herself and explained that she held Brenda's power of attorney.

"That expired when she did," the doctor replied. "I need to talk to a member of the family."

I invite any of our eloquent posters on this issue to argue that that would have happened to a legal spouse.

And that's what "homosexual marriage" is all about, Charlie Brown. Being recognized, after years of loving and faithful union and in the most heartbreaking moment of one's life, as "a member of the family."

Edited for typo, alas.



* This one-word answer does not, of course, include the more than a thousand marriage-related rights and privileges conferred by U.S. law.

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That is what counts not what word you call it.

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separate but equal

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The whole thrust of your "argument," how ever well intentioned you may think it, is that the bigotry of homophobes should be awarded greater weight than the dignity of gay and lesbian citizens.

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remember the majority of people of faith in this country are NOT homophobes...but millions of them are against the use of the word marriage in civil unions.

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ORIGINAL: kdsub

OK lets look at it this way...say 200 million feel insulted by it...and 1 million don't... which figure should carry the most weight when either way serves the same purpose?

There is no need to needlessly insult someone is there.

Or is it ok by you to publish cartoons of Muhammad simply because you should have the right even though it insults a billion Muslims?

Butch

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ORIGINAL: kdsub

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separate but equal

But you see you would not be separate but equal...not under the law... It is just a designation between a legal coupling of a man and a woman or a legal coupling of the same sex. Two different things.

Butch