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Posted By: Ryan Christoff

I don't have anything against straight people. Some of my best friends are straights. They can do whatever they want in the privacy of their own home. I just don't want it called a "Marriage". From now on, I'm going to refer to straight marriage as "civil union." You can still have all the legal rights, though.

The term "Marriage" is a legal one that happens to also have profound religious meaning to many. It is not simply a religious term. There is absolutely no non-religious reason for gay marriage to be any different from straight marriage. None. Marriage is marriage. Calling it "civil union" still says, very loudly, that one couples' "civil union" is less than another couples' "Marriage."

I agree that it will be a long haul for gay marriage to be completely equal to any other marriage, but it was also a long haul to go from separate drinking fountains to President Obama. Long haul or not, justice and equality are possible in this country. Even if you're gay.

Today, many straight couples will go down to their local courthouse to get married by a justice of the peace. Even if they are not religious, they are still getting married. They are not getting "civil-unioned." Are they any less married than someone who gets married in a church by a priest or minister? Shouldn't their marriage be viewed as less than your full-blown religious matrimony?

Unless you are a closet homosexual who is in a straight marriage in order to hide the truth from yourself and those around you, what possible reason could you have to care about who someone else marries? How could it possibly lessen the legitimacy of your marriage?

Didn't Arkansas just make it illegal for gay couples to adopt? Yes, gay people have it so good in this country. All the rights straight people have, plus no discrimination against them. Also, they never have to worry about being pistol-whipped and left for dead tied to a fencepost, or any other harm coming to them simply because of who they are.

It really sounds great to be gay in 2008 America. It's a wonder more Americans aren't making the "choice" to be gay.

-Ryan