Illinois marriage foes falling short

Larry Buhl, PlanetOut Network published Wednesday, July 5, 2006 Based on a sampling, opponents of marriage equality in Illinois don't have enough valid signatures to get an anti-marriage measure on the Nov.

[Bert]

I can't believe that we can't get enough names for the ballot. We should have the same rights as everyone else.

[blab]

GOOD! Protect marriage!

[Brass_Balls]

blab wrote:

GOOD! Protect marriage!

Um,... protect marriage from what? Any two responsible people should be granted the rights and inviolability of marriage.

[Emily]

It's one thing to be expected to be treated like "everyone else" but to expect the world to adapt our opinions and CHANGE our laws to accomodate your "alternative lifestyle" and dysfunctional behavior is obsurd. Keep what you do in the bedroom to yourself. We really don't want to hear about it.

[Emily]

absurd* shoulda proofread that before I hit send.

[TampaBob]

Emily wrote:

It's one thing to be expected to be treated like "everyone else" but to expect the world to adapt our opinions and CHANGE our laws to accomodate your "alternative lifestyle" and dysfunctional behavior is obsurd. Keep what you do in the bedroom to yourself. We really don't want to hear about it.

Which alternative lifestyle are you referring to? You mean heterosexual marriage? You must mean heterosexual marriage because by all measures of this discussion, people like you equate gay marriage with gay sex, yet for more than 20 years the heterosexual divorce rate continues to remain steady at 50%

So, str8 folks are free to get married, a few years later get divorced, have as much sex in and outside their marriage as they want, get as many divorces as they want and that's OK?

I don't know why you're so obsessed with what goes on in the bedrooms of gay folks. I don't see any gay folks having sex in the streets.

Perhaps you should look at your OWN institution of marriage before you start pointing fingers at those who can't even enjoy the rights, benefits and privlidges of civil marriage in this country.

[GayRevolutionary]

Emily wrote:

It's one thing to be expected to be treated like "everyone else" but to expect the world to adapt our opinions and CHANGE our laws to accomodate your "alternative lifestyle" and dysfunctional behavior is obsurd. Keep what you do in the bedroom to yourself. We really don't want to hear about it.

Wow Emily, I'm sure that I speak for everyone who is Gay when I apologize for the mistreatment and oppression that we have imposed upon you. Your absolutely right, while You can flaunt Your relationships in the street, you have the right to push mine behind closed doors. While I don't have the right to encourage laws that guarantee my rights, You have the right to enact laws that limit and abolish mine. While I have no right to voice my minority opinion in the open, You have the right to impose your opinion in almost every facet of society. And to think, You can do this while still feigning that your the victim of us. Emily, what is absurd is not your proofreading, but your thinking!!!

[See More]

They must have tried to get the signatures LEGALLY in Ill!!! In MA, they were extremeley deceptive...out of about 170,000, 50,000 were retracted!

[See More]

...and most of them were signed at Catholic churches after Mass. They also went to the Partiots stadium (so all the tough guys could show how tough they are)

[Gay Mom]

Emily wrote:

It's one thing to be expected to be treated like "everyone else" but to expect the world to adapt our opinions and CHANGE our laws to accomodate your "alternative lifestyle" and dysfunctional behavior is obsurd. Keep what you do in the bedroom to yourself. We really don't want to hear about it.

Emily,
Does your mom know that you not playing nicely with others? I'll admit I'm a bit disfunctional (aren't we all) but not in whom I love. That is one of the very true and lovely functions of my life.

[Emily]

Why do we condemn those who have sex with animals and with children because it's deviant but we are supposed to accept people who have sex with their same gender? How is that any less broken than the aforementioned acts? Gay people cannot reproduce and that is one of our most basic life functions. Please do not bash me for I will never disrespect you as a person. If you have the right to choose to participate in an act,then I have the right to tell you that I think it's wrong. I think you should have the right to live your life the way you want to, but what gives you the gall to try to change our laws to benefit your dysfunction?

[Gay Mom]

Emily wrote:

Why do we condemn those who have sex with animals and with children because it's deviant but we are supposed to accept people who have sex with their same gender? How is that any less broken than the aforementioned acts? Gay people cannot reproduce and that is one of our most basic life functions. Please do not bash me for I will never disrespect you as a person. If you have the right to choose to participate in an act,then I have the right to tell you that I think it's wrong. I think you should have the right to live your life the way you want to, but what gives you the gall to try to change our laws to benefit your dysfunction?

Emily, love is never disfunctional. Sex can be, and often is. I lived with sexual abuse for 21 of my 27 years marriage. Sex can be a power tool, a control mechanism, or even violence. Love can never be those things, ever. Instead of a sexual image, try to put this image in your mind. Fading light, two obviously weary women sitting on a well worn couch, slight smiles on their faces, hands gently held, the litany of daily toil being exchanged. One reaches out and smoothes the hair of the other, telling her that she made the right decision or that she WILL live to fight another day at the office. An answering smile revealing a grateful heart, now...what shall we have for dinner?

This is love. Pure and simple. The everyday life of supporting those we care about.

[Gay Mom]

Emily wrote:

Why do we condemn those who have sex with animals and with children because it's deviant but we are supposed to accept people who have sex with their same gender? How is that any less broken than the aforementioned acts? Gay people cannot reproduce and that is one of our most basic life functions. Please do not bash me for I will never disrespect you as a person. If you have the right to choose to participate in an act,then I have the right to tell you that I think it's wrong. I think you should have the right to live your life the way you want to, but what gives you the gall to try to change our laws to benefit your dysfunction?

Emily,
Now again picture those women. They're the emergency room, one has had a heart attack. She may not make it. However, the other woman, with no legal standing, is not allowed in. Can you feel the anguish, and you understand the despair?

This is what it's all about, Emily.

[Carrot Cake Man]

Emily, let me explain what the source for all laws in the United States is: The US Constitution. If there are any ordinary laws, regardless of the jurisdiction, that are not in agreement with the US Constitution, they are "unconstitutional," and we hope that a more honest Supreme Court would so declare such laws. The Constitution promises all Americans Equal Protection Under The Law. The Constitution did not say "some" Americans; it did not except gay and lesbian Americans. Even gay and lesbian Americans are promised Equal Protection Under The Law.

My partner and I would very much like to get married. Perhaps you're thinking "it's all about sex, why do they need marriage?" well, you'd be wrong. It's about paying taxes at the same rate as others. The problem is we pay, combined, twice the federal and state taxes we'd pay if we were legally married. We also are denied the over 1,400 "special rights" that the federal government grants to those who are legally married. That's right, Emily, you have the "special right" of marriage right now.

The laws that are used to hurt me and my partner are clearly uncontituional because of the Equal Protection Clause. It is not a matter of making laws to accomodate gays and lesbians who want to marry. It is rather a matter of rendering invalid those laws that, by hurting my partner and me--and the well over 20 million adult gay and lesbian Americans--violate the Constitution.

I think that's the central problem, Emily. I think you want to defile the US Constitution by overthrowing it and establishing your church's rules as the law of the land. I think God is very angry with you right now for the hateful, hurtful things you're trying to do to His gay and lesbian children.

[Carrot Cake Man]

Emily wrote:

Why do we condemn those who have sex with animals and with children because it's deviant but we are supposed to accept people who have sex with their same gender? How is that any less broken than the aforementioned acts?

You've equated gays and lesbians with animals. That is profoundly offensive to me. Would you like me to call YOU names?

Go right ahead and condemn those who hav sex with children, because heterosexuals commit the vast, overweaning majority of such cases.

[Carrot Cake Man]

Emily wrote:

Please do not bash me for I will never disrespect you as a person.

But you just compared us to animals and heterosexual pederasts. Only YOU may bash? It doesn't work that way here.

[Carrot Cake Man]

Emily wrote:

Gay people cannot reproduce and that is one of our most basic life functions.

How many times do I have to write this?

Lesbian + gay man + turkey baster = child. Thousands of them in San Francisco. By hurting their same-sex parents, you're hurting the little children. Are you proud of yourself? Just how important is hating and hurting other people to this religion you wear on your sleeve?

[Carrot Cake Man]

Gay Mom wrote:

<quoted text>
Emily,
Now again picture those women. They're the emergency room, one has had a heart attack. She may not make it. However, the other woman, with no legal standing, is not allowed in. Can you feel the anguish, and you understand the despair?
This is what it's all about, Emily.

PLEASE tell me this didn't happen, dear Gay Mom. You serve as an example of moderation in these angry times.

[Emily]

You all scream about wanting the same rights as everyone else but you can't handle abiding by the same laws as everyone else. Want the same rights? Follow the same laws.

I personally hate the "gay revolution". I hate seeing homosexual couples in television ads because it's confusing for children. You know what I tell my kids when they see 2 men together and look to me with their noses wrinkled? I say, "yeah, I don't know what's wrong with them, that's gross" You can tell me all about how my "ignorance" is being passed on to my children and how they are going to grow up to be judgmental and whatnot, but the definition of ignorance is "knowning something is wrong but doing it anyway" I refuse to accept someone else's deviance as being ok. It's not. It's disgusting. It's simply wrong.

The major difference between a heterosexual person and a homosexual person is the activity that goes on in the bedroom. Another difference is that heterosexuals can keep quiet about their sexual activity where as homosexuals are defined by theirs. What would happen if the Dom/submissive communitity up and decided that slavery should be reinstated because it is "who they are" and they should be allowed to practice it and live their lives and do whatever they want. You know what they would be told? Keep their deviance in the bedroom where it belongs. Which is exactly what the homosexual crowd should do. You want to be different? Fine by me. Keep it to yourself. How dare you expect special treatment for your dysfunction.

[Enoch]

Emily wrote:

You all scream about wanting the same rights as everyone else but you can't handle abiding by the same laws as everyone else. Want the same rights? Follow the same laws.
I personally hate the "gay revolution". I hate seeing homosexual couples in television ads because it's confusing for children. You know what I tell my kids when they see 2 men together and look to me with their noses wrinkled? I say, "yeah, I don't know what's wrong with them, that's gross" You can tell me all about how my "ignorance" is being passed on to my children and how they are going to grow up to be judgmental and whatnot, but the definition of ignorance is "knowning something is wrong but doing it anyway" I refuse to accept someone else's deviance as being ok. It's not. It's disgusting. It's simply wrong.
The major difference between a heterosexual person and a homosexual person is the activity that goes on in the bedroom. Another difference is that heterosexuals can keep quiet about their sexual activity where as homosexuals are defined by theirs. What would happen if the Dom/submissive communitity up and decided that slavery should be reinstated because it is "who they are" and they should be allowed to practice it and live their lives and do whatever they want. You know what they would be told? Keep their deviance in the bedroom where it belongs. Which is exactly what the homosexual crowd should do. You want to be different? Fine by me. Keep it to yourself. How dare you expect special treatment for your dysfunction.

I am reminded of a quotation from Shakespeare. This is truly "a tale
told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." (Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5 if you are curious)

You say that we should abide by the same laws. Fine. But, first, can you name one law that homosexuals don't abide by? Don't quote me any individuals breaking laws, as that is a logical fallacy of hasty generalization. Name one law that, as a whole, the gay community doesn't abide by.

Also, I really don't care if you teach your children that being gay is gross. It matters not one iota to me. I, for one, feel that as society becomes more open-minded, so will your children...whether you like it or not.

Finally, what special treatment are gay people asking for? Marriage? Hardly a special treatment given that legal marriage is little more than a contract. A contract, it should be noted, which is currently being denied to a minority based on the fact that many, like you, are to blind to see beyond the fact that they find it "gross."