Today's conversations and research....

Okay, today I was challenged by some friends to support the group fighting the Wisconsin "Gay Marriage" Amendment.

Here are some comments/random findings as I researched this subject further. I always do this on a subject that I am unsure of, mostly due to the fact I had not fully researched and learned about it completely. I will say, I still have not researched it enough for me to be an "expert" on this amendment, but I know what my heart tells me - this amendment is a bad, bad idea. From the research and comments I have read, I see this thing being used one way or another to persecute someone for being different. In my simple terms, this is bad. VERY bad. I know that my vote will be against it. And when discussed, I will argue against it.

Not just because of the anti-gay portion of it. Heck, in Wisconsin same-sex marriage is already illegal. I figure that with time, minds will be changed through education and enough people will come to understand that the gays and lesbians are just as human as the straights and this law will be repealed/changed.

No, the more important part is for myself - yep, I'm being selfish again (stunning, right? :) ). The part of this amendment that bothers me is the part that MIGHT have an effect on me in the future. The second part of the amendment basically says that civil unions are not okay...this seems very weird to me. I am a cynic about marriage. I look at it as a horrible idea. Basically, it is a contract that is based completely on emotion and lust (yes, a good marriage actually has more to it than that, but a lot of marriages are not good marriages). Not a good mix in my opinion. This amendment would force me to get married to protect my female partner (or vice versa, if that's how we decided to do things) with employer sponsored health insurance, etc (just one example of something like 200 rights that would be lost). And I honestly feel that that is the government meddling in my life a step way too far.

And finally a representative that says something I believe to the core of my being (and a Republican that makes me proud to say I'm more Republican than Democrat - the first in a long time...and one of the few comments that give me a glimmer of hope for the two party system we have...he uses an intelligent argument to make his vote, not his party line):

(From a story from the Wisconsin State Journal)

Rep. Gregg Underheim of Oshkosh, the lone Republican to vote against the amendment, told his colleagues they were crossing a line with their action.
"Constitutions were written to protect people who were different. Gay people are different and constitutions ought not treat them differently," he said. "What we are doing today is wrong."

EDIT: I disagree with some of his comment - Gays are different in only one aspect of their lives, who they happen to share their bed with. But they are not different in the fact that they are human beings.

Now I do have a comment about some of the comments I saw on some of the websites/blogs that I hit. It kind of makes me laugh, due to the underlying tone of the comments. The underlying tone basically makes the assumption that homosexuals will be better at this marriage thing than heterosexuals are. I guess the cynic in me says that is BULLSHIT! The only advantage for the gays and lesbians that I can see is that that the old adage "Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars" will not be as evident in their marriages. Just as one example, while I do not know the current status of their marriage, the first lesbian couple to get married in Massachusetts was seperated for at least a time (makes the cynic in me just say "HA! See? Marriage is stupid!").

Goes back to my original argument - homosexuals are just as human as heterosexuals...and deserve the same rights and privileges that I have as a heterosexual. If you are reading this as a human being in Wisconsin or any of the other states where this is being put up for state constitutional amendments, vote NO to the ban...it's just flat out wrong.