I guess I have to say that personally, I don't like the idea of gay marriage - or of gay sex, for that matter. I don't like abortion, either. I think it is the taking of a life, although I acknowledge that many people have valid reasons for disagreeing with me. Those are my opinions. I am squeamish to dead set against both of these things.

But I feel compelled to acknowledge that gay people have gay sexual relationships for reasons that are very valid to them, and that women have abortions for reasons that are very valid to them. Although I may disagree with them, what right to I have to interfere with their rights to make choices for their own lives.

I don't like gay marriage and I don't like abortion, so don't expect me to strongly support either of these things. I certainly can respect a person's right to choose these things - so those who support abortion and gay marriage are well-advised to respect my point of view. It is to their advantage to count me as an ally.

On the other hand, those who oppose gay marriage and abortion might find advantage in considering me an ally, also.

I think that too often, we humans tend to reject others that we do not consider to be ideologically pure. If they don't see things exactly the way we do, we find it very difficult to find any value in them or in their point of view. If we hold too rigidly to our own perspective, we find it impossible to form alliances and compromises. We spend our lives being "right," but never getting anything accomplished because we can never find a majority of people who share our exact point of view.

-Joe-