"everyone is entitled to their views. everyone is NOT entitled to take away my or anyone else's rights because they don't like the way they have sex. rights are not subject to majority rule. according to our sacred documents they are inalienable and endowed by our creator."

Ah, there's the rub. Not everyone agrees with that definition of rights and, for many people (though not necessarily me), their creator had something different to say about that.

That's the problem with the current state of the culture wars, they've become entrenched stalemates because we no longer try to come to common terms for what we're discussing. We argue "the sky is blue!"/"the earth is brown!", reducing it to "blue!"/"brown!", back and forth, no longer even on the same page and at a loss for words that would allow us to discover it. Compromise becomes impossible. We're even to the point where we consider the opposing side inherently evil (at least that's the impression I got in another thread where some called called me conservative as if it were the most perjorative term -- my being "conservative" will come as a shock to some folks who view me as quite the opposite).

In the mid-term (not even the long run) civil unions will be the rule. The arguments against them are fairly silly but forces against using the word "marriage" are too strong. Sadly the process will drive us further apart. The extreme ends of the debate will set the tone as usual.