not intellectually or emotionally, why anyone would be opposed to marriage. “Oh”, you say, “marriage is one of the core family values” except for those people. Why are those people, those human beings, those loving, caring people not allowed to marry? It pisses me off. I truly do not understand it. What the hell is the problem?

Is there so much love in the world that we can afford to turn our backs to it? Yes, those people are allowed some of the legal benefits of marriage, in some places. But everything having to do with these people seems to have conditions. Why?

Yeah, yeah – there are the ignorant that believe gays/lesbians are all sexual predators – and that always seemed like projection to me. What are they all afraid of? Their own secret fantasies?

Then there are the religious objections. This is supposed to be a secular nation. There is supposed to be separation of church and State. Religious rules and regulations apply only to the people of that religion; they do not apply to the rest of us. Mind your own business.

How do you define yourself? Me, I am a human being, homo sapiens, and that’s the most important definition. After that I am a female. After that – well it’s gets a little bit fuzzy, because then we get into the wild and wonderful area of individuals. If you make rules and regulations for homo sapiens then they have to apply to all homo sapiens because that is the bottom line, the one unifying characteristic. How many years has it taken to do away with most of the laws that were gender based? Women got the right to vote in 1920 and women have been around as long as men have. Male and female; both homo sapiens – laws should be the same.

Which brings us back to – marriage as a legal right for consenting adults. Two homo sapiens marrying and receiving all the attendant legal considerations, rights and privileges as well as responsibilities. Why is there any question about how to apply this? (And no, a civil union is not equal to a legal marriage.)

Religious marriage ceremonies have no legal standing. You have to have a state issued marriage license to make it legal. So if religions wish to deny the emotional and spiritual element to certain people, it is their right. But it is no one’s place to deny the legal protections of marriage to any two consenting adults. Period. End of discussion.

So I don’t get it. I have never understood. I will never understand. Gay, straight – what the hell is the difference. We are homo sapiens. And we love.