Reasonable idea. People get "civil unionized" then if they want they get a church wedding...the church part being optional. The legal part and the religious part are then kept separate... This would also help to increase revenue for the state, as for the process to have legal standing, the civil part would have to be performed by a civil servant... It really doesn't make sense for a "man of the cloth" presiding over something that the government views as a legal entity... Of course the traditionalists will shit stones at this idea... They are still under the illusion that marriage has anything to do with God. Hey Jesus freaks, do recall Adam and Eve getting married? If not, then we are all descendants of a man and woman who not only had sex before marriage, but had children out of wedlock...
I agree on religion. If an atheist promoted wife-beating, paedophilia, or suicide bombing, he'd be rightly denounced. Why should the treatment be any different if someone says exactly the same thing but claims they are religious beliefs? Religion should be given no more and no less tolerance than identical activity carried out for non-religious reasons by non-religious people. If slaughtering calves is ok for the religious then it's ok for atheists. If wife-beating is ok for the religious then it's ok for the agnostic. If charitable status is allowed for religious non-profits then it is allowed for atheist non-profits etc. Sexuality I don't agree on. Are you seriously saying that you or I have a *choice* as to what we want to fuck? If a hairy 350lbs man jumped into bed with you, could you choose to get turned on? I doubt it. If a 90 year old grandmother offered $10 million to have sex with her, chances are you wouldn't be able to keep it up. Equally, if a group of playboy centrefolds tied you up and started grinding up and down on you, then if you are straight it is going to be pretty much impossible not to get a boner. It's a choice who you *have sex with*. It's not a choice who you get aroused by. There is a big difference between sexual behaviour and sexual arousal. So if you define "sexuality" as the latter, not the former, then you can't claim it's a free choice.
A single childless man might pose the same question re straight marriage. Gay men and women pay taxes at the same rate (so far) as straight men and women, so why shouldn't they get the same benefits? Actually de facto they pay more since gay men are a richer demographic than straights. Besides, a whole load of people get tax dollars from you who are neither gay nor married. Incest and bigamy should be legal if it's between consenting adults.
Most thinking people would agree that sexual orientation is not a choice. However, I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you are referring to yourself, and that it came down to a conscious choice for you after a period of indecision.
Gays make LESS than men with children. Considerably. Gays like any other childless person enjoy greater disposable income but earnings lag. http://www.urban.org/publications/900631.html I pay taxes at higher rate than a welfare recipient. So why shouldn't I too get food stamps? Or a government contract? Or stimulus money? I pay higher property taxes than my neighbor who at least sends a child to the public school that I subsidize. There's all kinds of "inequalities" in the world of government. Grin and bare it. An unmarried homosexual receives the exact same social security benefits as any other single person or anyone in a "common law" marriage. Death benefits were created under the assumption that married women were mothers who sacrificed earnings for family. Yes childless, married women with careers "beat the system" when they collect the check for their dead husbands. not exactly a big class of woman though, eh?
Well, we've already established that it came down to choice for you, no doubt after a thorough and rigorous evaluation of the alternatives.
I think it is hard of people to believe homosexuality is (NOT) a choice because they can not see phermones. This is what gives that urge for a women or man to look for sex. More research show that homosexual people (maybe because in the womb exposure to hormones) are attracted to the phermones of same sex. No one can see it happening, it is odor that attracts and people are not conscious of the odor, but they have urge from the odor. Most people attract to opposite sex, but the homosexual have a chemistry that has changed in the womb. That is what science is looking to now. Hypothesis. I think it is very strange to see 2 men or 2 women together, but I do not hate them for that. And I think it is strange when a gay man flirt with my boyfriend, but my boyfriend get angry.
It may have been a choice to go against his instinct, but the struggle is obvious... Generally the closets try to hide their latency... Has there ever been another ET poster who referenced "sucking cock" more than Pabst? Apparently it is on his mind a lot, and I wonder if his dreams are that of a man who likes to "suck cock" or dreams of a man "sucking some guys cock." Is Pabst a pitcher or a catcher? Now the latent homophobic thing for Pabst to do next is express outrage and try to show what a macho real man he is...
No, I do not think Pabst is gay from how I read on ET. I think Pabst think gay people are sick but he think about what gay men do together. Everyone think about that, that does not mean you desire to do that too.