There's no hate here. I love all people. Even those who want me dead based on their religious teachings (re. Muslims). Homosexuality is nothing more than another sin in a long list of sins that people commit. It is no worse or no better than being an alchoholic, drug abuser, or wife beater. These are all abhorent behaviors which all people should repent againt. When homosexual come to my church, we welcome them, as we do all of God's children. We help them to understand that we as people are not capable of overcoming the evils of this world, without God's guiding and loving hand. If you think you can achieve happiness and balance in this world without the guidance of an absolute higher morality, you are doomed to a terrestrial existance fraught with disappointment and dispair. And in case none of that makes sense to you......one adult married penis goed into one adult married vagina! If you're doing something other than that, you're doing it wrong!

Rick Dell...Great post. It's too bad this country whose pledge of allegiance cites "with liberty and justice for all" can't live up to it's own words.
And to "because it's wrong" and "you missed the point", you are the reason there is a separation between church and state. Stop using your religion to cover your bigotry. You are nothing more than hate mongers.

I hope you don't mind an outsider's point of view.

In Canada, we have the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to protect the rights of minorities, and do not allow the will of the majority to trample the rights of the minority. I wholeheartedly disagree with RightMan and his hateful characterizations of people who are gay, but we agree on one thing: just because a view is widely-held doesn't mean that it is right (just look at historical support in some states for things like slavery, miscegenation laws, segregation, etc.). Just because many poeple today oppose same sex marriage doesn't mean that discrimination against gay people is right. With freedom of religion you are free to believe what you want, but that does not give you the right to make others live according to your own religious beliefs.

Has the legalization of same-sex marriage undermined opposite-sex marriage in Canada? No. The things that undermine opposite-sex marriage continue to be adultery, boredom, abuse, lack of communication, taking each of for granted, ease of divorce, and the blurring of the distinctions between common law (opposite-sex) relationships and marriages. These existed long before same-sex marriages were legalized.

Achieving equal rights for people who are gay, lesbian, or transgendered is the civil rights issue of our era, just as rights for women and rights for people of colour have been the civil rights focus of past eras (not to say that either of those issues has been fully resolved). The idea that it's good enough to allow a "separate but equal" form of marriage is no more valid than it was to base segragation on the "separate but equal" doctrine.

Many people who were on the wrong side of history in the battles against segregation, miscegenation, etc., have come to realize that prejudices had blinded them to what was right. I am hopeful that in time, acceptance and equal treatment of people attracted to others of the same sex will become a reality for the friends I have in the United States.

I am not gay myself, but you don't have to be gay to stand up for gay rights. Many men have supported women's efforts to achieve equal rights. White men and woman stood up with people of colour in the civil rights era. Justice for gay men and women will not be achieved in the United States until more straight men and women are willing to stand up for the rights of those who are different from them.

When this all gets recorded in the history books, which side of the issue will you be on?

The point is that you're preaching moral relativism. "If it feels good, do it." Did you notice that the empires that practiced and embraced homosexuality and other immoral behavior do not exist any more? My point is that if you force acceptance of one perversion (homosexuality), you open the door to forced acception of the others (incest, pedophelia, sodomy, beastiality.....). Morality exists above and beyond human beings. If you cannot hold yourself to a higher standard, then there are no rules. Why is murder illegal? Why is theft illegal? These are laws based on a higher moral standard. Homosexuality, while not illegal, is certainly not a morally proper thing to practice. You can't just move the moral bar to wherever you want it. If you do that, then you are placing the responsibility for morality into human hands. And as we all know, people are deeply flawed imperfect beings. Morality derives from a perfection and there is only one source of perfection.

Gay marriage is banned because homosexuality is wrong. The majority of the people in Maine, and the entire country, do not want a group of people who define themselves by their sexual perversion and mental illness, to redefine the institution of marriage. Gay people have the right to love who they want and do whatever strange things they want to each other, but they should keep it in their bedrooms, out of the news, off of the streets, and out of our schools. Leave us alone and we'll leave you alone. You just can be married. If we permit gays to marry, next it's brothers and sisters, mothers and sons, fathers and daughters. They're consenting adults, why shouldn't they be able to love each other and marry? It's the same thing. NAMBLA would argue that love exist between men and boys. Why can't they marry? The reason is obvious. It's all just plain wrong.

thanks for your post- I googled Maine Gay Marriage and your blog showed up- I mostly expected to see something in favor or the law- I'm gay, happily together with someone for 16 years and married since june 08 in CA. It's an unbelievable feeling to have people pass laws against you. We are all heartbroken for the gay couples in Maine, waking up to the election news this morning and the feeling of being shoved back into the closet. We try to comfort ourselves with the "bigger picture", look how far we've come since Stonewall, but the way the right is portraying the marriage issue, and simply to be legislated against is unbeliveably painful. Thanks for your open mind. Simply talking about it helps.

No one, but, no one should be allowed to VOTE on the rights of others!! I am open-minded as well and don't understand this close-minded hatred and nonacceptance of gays. I live in Mass. where, thank God, the issue was resolved by the Judiciary, as it should be. If we leave the rights of some up to the whim of the majority these kinds of bigoted votes will result. Imagine if, in the past, southern states had been allowed to vote on whether or not to allow slavery to continue.
And why, does it seem a lot of so called Christians are the most ardent opponents of giving any rights to gays?? I have a mother-in-law, who is a strong Catholic, who has such venemous hatred towards "queers" as she calls them. It's the height of hypocrisy and it enrages me!