In response to the dialogue and actions regarding same sex marriage, I posed the question 'is gay marriage different" to friends that celebrated their first anniversary in August ....Here's their response:

"Nothing - except the partnership and love between two men or two women who have endured the ignorance of society for too long. When we were married here in Canada last August on the 30th anniversary of our meeting, forming our arts/theatre company, and what would have been the 101st anniversary of my dad's birth, some one asked if we felt any different, i could only say, "We walk a little taller'. it gave us the right and responsibility to be whole, to be ourselves openly, to be acknowledged as part of the human race with equal footing, to be legally recognized, to share the same rights of dignity, self-respect that have been so generously established for heterosexual couples for centuries who have just as often and just as long abused their own flesh and blood for being different."

Think carefully. Isn't that what our humanity should be about?

Why do some feel threatened by same-sex marriage? And why chose to live by biblical rules thousands of years old and outdated by customs of an evolving world community? The Bible isn't the only path, yet you are finding isolated quotes that you feel give divine authority to justify your belief. Perhaps you should consider Jesus' request to just love one another....... How do you even think you have the right to deny someone else's happiness, security, and human rights to be just who they are? Why do you choose mean-spirited responses and then say it's the word of God?

When a society prohibits something - voting rights, integration, alcohol - it becomes more of a problem than less so. This has been proved time and time again. To deny love and caring and responsible commitment of others is to deny yourself -- and to set examples that are neither right nor helpful to the development of the community as a whole. There are examples on both sides that are despicable and there are examples that are truly remarkably wonderful. Everything in nature is in balance - only ignorant attitudes have unbalanced our world - morally, educationally, physically, spiritually - ethically.

When there is an opportunity to right a wrong, it always amazes me that people take so long to adjust what they consider to be the status quo for fear of changing something they recognize and with which they feel comfortable - even if it means someone else dies or is brutalized by their injustice. and, oddly enough, change is the only thing that is unchangeable and happens even when we resist it.

Throughout history, homosexual and lesbian life-styles have not only been tolerated in some and destroyed in others, but throughout it all, they have bettered our world with inventions, ideas, art forms, even military solutions. The majority have truly nothing to fear but their own fears which need to be explored and exposed to the harsh light of re-education.

Accepting human nature, human experiences, and human awareness is the true basis of tolerant and even compassionate understanding among peoples and cultures.

So, what makes 'gay' marriage different? Nothing, but the attitudes that surround it, condemn it, defy it, demean it or would never let it be. In a world that is faced with the effects of intense hatred, stupidity, greed, corruption, arrogance, small-mindedness - all in the name of preserving social norms and religious beliefs and political/economic power - why and how can anyone deny anyone the right to love, be loved and share love?

Explain to me how that destroys any form of real marriage, of any kind of true commitment or how that destroys our world, our nation, our society, our cultures.

We affirm our humanity when we acknowledge that of others.....