;)

Yay for Iowa! Now let's move one state to the east please, I'd like to hope I can get married by the time I'm ready.

I read that earlier. Go Iowa! I hope their state Supreme Court upholds this very progressive judge's decision.

New Jersey has the civil union laws which are a tad shy of the full marraige allowance, but it's some progress.

There were actually serious news articles suggesting that the Philadelphia Gayborhood was going to turn into a ghost town as everybody hastened to move across the bridge to New Jersey to become civilly unionized.

Curiously enough, however, the population of the Garden State doesn't appear to have swelled in response. That may be due, in part, to the fact that the town across the bridge is Camden.

Mia still has a big M on her Costa Rica passport and she and Anita sailed through the licensing here in Florida. If Erycka and I decide to as well, we won't have a problem either.

It seems so crazy that we are allowed, and yet so many of our friends do not have the same rights.

Actually the same judge that ruled gay marriage legal, then issued a stay against his own order until the Iowa Supreme court could rule on the issue.

No one wants to go to Camden

My stance is exactly the same as the title here... all people have the right to be miserable. But more importantly, there's all the crap about the "sanctity of marriage". In a country where most marriages end in divorce (let alone how many don't take place in a church, which I'd think is a big part of "sanctity" myself) that argument is bullshit. It comes down to the same thing slavery came down to... we can't have "them" having the same rights as "us", and since gays can "hide" what they are, and blacks can't, we need to cut them off where they differ.

Well, I think any two consenting adults should have the right to marry, if they want to go down that road.

As for me, marriage makes me :john

Was domestic partnered once. Great guy, we're good friends again, but...never....again....

I think Liz Taylor, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Britney Spears nullify the whole "Oh but the sanctity of marriage" bullshit from the politicians.

The whole marriage concept is a relatively new concept anyway, it's not like it was handed down from prehistoric man or something.

Such crapola.......why can't two people in a relationship have equal rights?

Right now, if you are transgendered, you cannot have an Australian passport. The Government will not let you travel. Lovely.

I consider myself a conservative, and my view is...why not?

That is so incredible. Here it's just a state of confusion. I know of a lot of girls that have male on their passport of origin yet have applied for and received an official California ID card that has an F. But most of those were issued pre 9/11.

In Florida now, it is getting almost as difficult to get a state ID as for a US passport.

Quote "Smartie":

Right now, if you are transgendered, you cannot have an Australian passport. The Government will not let you travel. Lovely.

That's so selfish of the TAPTB! Keeping all those Aussie trannies to themselves! The idiots probably think it increases tourism to Australia.

It makes me sad my two lesbian friends who have been partnered for over 15 years have had to go through a thousand legal hoops to even try to get some of the rights of a straight married couple here in California. I went to their Pagan handfasting ceremony, it was beautiful, and I was the DJ for the reception.

They were smart to secure those legal rights. Not every one plans like that.

If god forbid, something bad happens, he or she dies suddenly, only the partner's family has rights. Even if they have not talked to them and they were disowned by them and want nothing to do with them. No one plans on dying young. But, it happens.

Your life partner then becomes your boyfriend or girlfriend, and you have no rights.

The person you just spent 15 years with, in the same house, your loved one, is nothing to you in the name of the law. Even if you had a "marriage ceremony". Zero.

This is the point of a legal civil union. Just to be the same as everyone.

Happy or miserable, just the same.

I'm all for Civil Unions, that is attainable. Not so sure about calling it "marriage" though. That word makes the religious fundies go crazy.

Mysterioso, that's exactly what I'm talking about. I would hate to be with someone for however many years, yet they have no legal right to make a decision for me if I'm dying and stuff like that.

I could care less if it's a civil union or a marriage, as long as it's something. Though we all know how well "separate but equal" always works out in our government. Those black and white separate water fountains, and black and white separate schools were such a good idea. I mean I learned that in 1st grade. Apparently our current politicians never went to elementary school.

The government should only be registering "Civil Unions" to everyone, straight, gay, transgendered or Martian. Let a church recognize what they want and let their members fight out what they want to recognize and call marriage.

In the meantime, we can have equal rights under the law and if a church doesn't want to accept it,

Quote "American Oracle":

Quote "Smartie":

Right now, if you are transgendered, you cannot have an Australian passport. The Government will not let you travel. Lovely.

That's so selfish of the TAPTB! Keeping all those Aussie trannies to themselves! The idiots probably think it increases tourism to Australia.

FREE THE TRANNIES!

My friend's dad was thrilled when gay marriage was legalized here.

He's a divorce lawyer.

Seriously, the world didn't end. Those religious freaks need to shut the fuck up.

Quote "Smartie":

Right now, if you are transgendered, you cannot have an Australian passport. The Government will not let you travel. Lovely.

I was of the understanding that they've just revised the passport controls, so they can't get a temporary fill-in after their surgery.

So, if a guy (say, the cousin of a well-known singer) goes to Thailand to become a woman, he can still fly on his passport, although it will still say 'male' on it.

Otherwise, they can stay whereever they are and wait for a new passport after jumping through the normal hoops, and then fly home with the brand new 'female' passport - although, that will obviously take time to oranise and process the passport.

According to a transgendered friend of mine, she couldn't get one as the Aus passport office wouldn't recognise her in either status - I hope things have changed, because that's just insane.

And I totally agree, Mysterioso - why can't two people have the same legal rights as a married couple, simply because they're of the same sex? Ridiculous.

I'm all for gay marriage, or civil unions, or whatever they want to call it.

Any couple that wants to be recognized in a committed relationship should have that right. They should have the right to carry each other on their insurance plans, adopt children, buy property together, and file taxes together.

I've seen many crappy heterosexual couples who are parents, the 'traditional family' that is being preserved. Why our government acts like it takes a man and a woman to raise a child is beyond me. They have set up the welfare system so that it is really only accessible by single women, which establishes that our government doesn't require 2 parents to raise a child anyway! So what difference would it make it the child had 2 parents of the same sex? At least they have 2 parents supporting them, which is more than can be said about a lot of welfare families today!

(I'm not knocking any parent who has had to turn to the welfare system for help. It happens. If you need it and can qualify, use it, that's what it is there for.)

I also find it sad that our medical community hasn't at least begun to recognize significant others as family members. Straight or gay, not everyone wants to be married before a major health crisis, and the doctors should share information with whomever the patient wants. A patient should be allowed visitors, whether they are technically family or not.

Politicians are hypocrits. Religious fundies are hypocrits. Both can burn in hell for all I care.

Well said, Cornfuzzled.