P.S. On rereading much of the thread, I realize I'm probably barking up the wrong tree in terms of actually addressing akenaton's arguments (but I'm still happy to have said what I did).

Your main point seems to be the idea that the gay marriage movement is a nefarious plot, put forward by the homosexual lobby to force acceptance down people's throats. I honestly don't think this is the main reason for it. True, there are a lot of very demonstrative people out there, and I don't blame them--when a community feels that they are being treated unfairly, it's only natural to protest.

However, the gay people I know, in general, are smart and cynical enough (after decades of being treated like second-class citizens) to realize that enacting same-sex marriage legislation is not going to cause the Moral Majority to come down from the pulpit and welcome them with open arms. Frankly, the idea here is that same-sex couples should have THE SAME RIGHTS as everybody else, REGARDLESS of whether the majority approves of their behavior. As I said, they want access to the LEGAL privileges and benefits married couples enjoy (which, as has been pointed out, civil unions do not. The gay community is close-knit and contains its own internal support system, along with a large portion of the population who DO welcome them with open arms.

I think they would just as soon tell those who don't approve of them to mind their own damn business (and possibly to stop beating the shit out of them periodically). No one has time to waste trying to force emotional/psychological acceptance from anyone else.

Molly