Gay Marriage Debate - Fort Lauderdale, FL

Everyone has a right to be happy. If its not directly affecting you, or harming you in any way, why should you care if gays marry or not? They have a right to be happy just like straight people do.

Love is love get over yourselves and make the right choice

no explanation needed.

Love is love. Whether you're male or female, you can't control who you fall for. Let gays be happy because honestly, it's not hurting anyone, they're just like everyone else. Humans.

"The land of the free" needs to live up to its name, because it clearly isn't at the moment. People's religious and moral values shouldn't be instilled into the government.

Ummm.

C:

No explanation necessary.

Everyone deserves to marry the one they love!

Everybody in the United States is equal. Not allowing gay marriage is just one way to make a group of people oppressed and seen as second class citizens

look i am gay and have a lover for over 12 years and still going strong i would love to have that right to say to him and ask him for his hand in marriage i am sorry to say but people str8t people talk about gays marry and devorce look at your self first

The Gay Rights Movement
http://www.youtube.com/watch...

I saw this on another thread. Out of respect and safety concerns I only include the poster's last initial (there's crazy people out there ya know):

An Open Apology to Amy Koch on Behalf of All Gay and Lesbian Minnesotans

Dear Ms. Koch,

On behalf of all gays and lesbians living in Minnesota, I would like to wholeheartedly apologize for our community's successful efforts to threaten your traditional marriage. We are ashamed of ourselves for causing you to have what the media refers to as an "illicit affair" with your staffer, and we also extend our deepest apologies to him and to his wife. These recent events have made it quite clear that our gay and lesbian tactics have gone too far, affecting even the most respectful of our society.

We apologize that our selfish requests to marry those we love has cheapened and degraded traditional marriage so much that we caused you to stray from your own holy union for something more cheap and tawdry. And we are doubly remorseful in knowing that many will see this as a form of sexual harassment of a subordinate.

It is now clear to us that if we were not so self-focused and myopic, we would have been able to see that the time you wasted diligently writing legislation that would forever seal the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman, could have been more usefully spent reshaping the legal definition of "adultery."

Forgive us. As you know, we are not church-going people, so we are unable to fully appreciate that "gay marriage" is incompatible with Christian values, despite the fact that those values carry a biblical tradition of adultery such as yours. We applaud you for keeping that tradition going.

And finally, shame on us for thinking that marriage is a private affair, and that our marriage would have little impact on anyone's family. We now see that marriage is more than that. It is an agreement with society. We should listen to the Minnesota Family Council when it tells us that marriage is about being public, which explains why marriages are public ceremonies. Never did we realize that it is exactly because of this societal agreement that the entire world is looking at you in shame and disappointment instead of minding its own business.

From the bottom of our hearts, we ask that you please accept our apology.

Thank you.
John M.
Minneapolis MN

What's the difference?

Taylor Vill wrote:

Everybody in the United States is equal. Not allowing gay marriage is just one way to make a group of people oppressed and seen as second class citizens

Ah, no...and they are

Tony wrote:

<quoted text>
"The people" don't get to pick. That's unconstitutional.

I had to laugh at this one.

The foundational priciple of our country is one that is of "the people", by "the people", and for "the people".

The Constitution is developed to protect "the people" from government running their lives.

grinder wrote:

<quoted text>
I had to laugh at this one.
The foundational priciple of our country is one that is of "the people", by "the people", and for "the people".
The Constitution is developed to protect "the people" from government running their lives.

Doesn't the U.S. Constitution state that "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

and that, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."

You will note is doesn't say men, it doesn't say women, it doesn't say heterosexuals. It says, "THE PEOPLE"

I'm amazed that any Judge, liberal or conservative, would have trouble seeing that marriage is a Constitutional right for ALL people, not just heterosexual ones. Especially if you then look at Article 4 sec 1& 2 and the first section of the 14th Amendment.

This letter appeared on NJ.com as a letter to the editor of the Star Ledger. And I really like how Naomi framed the idea of marriage as something valuable and priceless. But let me let her tell it before I comment:
Marriage as art
I have heard this question asked a number of times by pro-gay marriage folks:“Why should it matter to others if gays get married?”
I will give a figurative example of why. Imagine your family had been handed down a beautiful painting from an ancestor who lived thousands of years ago. The original owner of this painting gave specific directions on its care, including how it was to be regarded and handled, with many rules attached to it. This painting is, and has been, considered priceless and precious to all of the families who have owned it for hundreds of generations. Gay marriage would be as if gays forcibly entered the home of that family, tried to rob the family of this painting and then trampled on the precious painting, all without realizing what it was worth.
Naomi Smith, Rockaway

The writer makes a wonderful analogy of marriage. But I think they miss a very important points and in doing so twist the intention of those who support marriage equality.
We are not destroying their priceless work of art. We are not trying to rob them of it. WE value it just as much as they do.
We are creating our own version of it, just as Art Students often learn by having to paint copies by the great masters like the Mona Lisa, and the Last Supper, gays and lesbians have begun to abandon our previous anti heterosexuality mind set. We have come to appreciate many of the things heterosexuals have brought into being.
Sports, religion, fashion, art, music, and yes even politics and ideals on equality. We are not out to destroy something as precious as marriage. In fact we are trying to help advertise it! Because we know how valuable it really is.
Just as Ms. Smith describes marriage as a beautiful piece of art, we would like that beauty to be shared in our homes, just as many display other valuable creations from their families.
Art is a very personal experience, both for the creator and those who see the creation. So is marriage. And like artwork sometimes it’s disturbing, provocative, even disgusting. Sometimes it is so convoluted and abstract that many can’t see the beauty in it. Ask any child who is from a broken home. Regardless of how disturbing the image may be that child almost always cherishes the ideal that it stood for.
It is often said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And that was why many gays and lesbians opposed the idea of marriage and anything that was based on the heterosexual model of life, love and family.
But we have grown since then. We have studied. We have learned. We have let go of some of our anger and the politically correct mindset some of our former leaders encouraged us to keep. We have loved our enemies as ourselves and embraced the ideals of family values. And we have come to celebrate the beauty that is the human spirit. We have decided that we too want to be able to experience the joy, giddiness, anxiety, fear, problems, obstacles and rewards and expense that come from forming a family unit.
In other words we have grown not just as individuals but as a community. And just like others who faced oppression in the past, be they women, people of color, religious groups, or the disabled, we have found our voice and our courage. As the title implies by a book about the blind and their struggle for independence, we are no longer afraid to Walk alone and March together.
The lady that wrote the letter I quoted above forgot one other important factor. They aren’t the only person that has such a beautiful work of art handed down by their families, generation after generation. I was raised with the same family heirloom. So why should the government say I’m not allowed to enjoy it?

DNF wrote:

This letter appeared on NJ.com as a letter to the editor of the Star Ledger. And I really like how Naomi framed the idea of marriage as something valuable and priceless. But let me let her tell it before I comment:
Marriage as art
I have heard this question asked a number of times by pro-gay marriage folks:“Why should it matter to others if gays get married?”
I will give a figurative example of why. Imagine your family had been handed down a beautiful painting from an ancestor who lived thousands of years ago. The original owner of this painting gave specific directions on its care, including how it was to be regarded and handled, with many rules attached to it. This painting is, and has been, considered priceless and precious to all of the families who have owned it for hundreds of generations. Gay marriage would be as if gays forcibly entered the home of that family, tried to rob the family of this painting and then trampled on the precious painting, all without realizing what it was worth.
Naomi Smith, Rockaway
The writer makes a wonderful analogy of marriage. But I think they miss a very important points and in doing so twist the intention of those who support marriage equality.
We are not destroying their priceless work of art. We are not trying to rob them of it. WE value it just as much as they do.
We are creating our own version of it, just as Art Students often learn by having to paint copies by the great masters like the Mona Lisa, and the Last Supper, gays and lesbians have begun to abandon our previous anti heterosexuality mind set. We have come to appreciate many of the things heterosexuals have brought into being.
Sports, religion, fashion, art, music, and yes even politics and ideals on equality. We are not out to destroy something as precious as marriage. In fact we are trying to help advertise it! Because we know how valuable it really is.
Just as Ms. Smith describes marriage as a beautiful piece of art, we would like that beauty to be shared in our homes, just as many display other valuable creations from their families.
Art is a very personal experience, both for the creator and those who see the creation. So is marriage. And like artwork sometimes it’s disturbing, provocative, even disgusting. Sometimes it is so convoluted and abstract that many can’t see the beauty in it. Ask any child who is from a broken home. Regardless of how disturbing the image may be that child almost always cherishes the ideal that it stood for.
It is often said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And that was why many gays and lesbians opposed the idea of marriage and anything that was based on the heterosexual model of life, love and family.
But we have grown since then. We have studied. We have learned. We have let go of some of our anger and the politically correct mindset some of our former leaders encouraged us to keep. We have loved our enemies as ourselves and embraced the ideals of family values. And we have come to celebrate the beauty that is the human spirit. We have decided that we too want to be able to experience the joy, giddiness, anxiety, fear, problems, obstacles and rewards and expense that come from forming a family unit.
In other words we have grown not just as individuals but as a community. And just like others who faced oppression in the past, be they women, people of color, religious groups, or the disabled, we have found our voice and our courage. As the title implies by a book about the blind and their struggle for independence, we are no longer afraid to Walk alone and March together.
The lady that wrote the letter I quoted above forgot one other important factor. They aren’t the only person that has such a beautiful work of art handed down by their families, generation after generation. I was raised with the same family heirloom. So why should the government say I’m not allowed to enjoy it?

Because your not

Whoa wrote:

<quoted text>
Because your not

Then you are in favor of religious discrimination.