California: Ban on Same-sex Marriage?

All these arguments about how marriage is a religious ceremony would be well and good except for the fact that they just aren't. You go back through history and marriage was initially a recognised bonding of two people by the society at large. It wasn't sanctioned by the angry volcano god, it was sanctioned by the populace. And it still is.

A priest marries you, but do you sign papers for the church that make it legal? Nope. That's the state. You're signing legally binding documents, not saying a prayer. A church can claim the ceremony--and lord knows they will try and act like that's the important part--but they can't claim marriage. Marriage is a state of being recognised by the state for tax and census purposes. The church did not invent the word. Hell, look up the etymology far enough back and you find it had ties to animals and fruit in the latin. And no, I'm not running for the etymological fallacy, I'm just pointing out how asinine it is to say the church has some claim on marriage. They don't. The church doesn't have to marry gay people, but they have no right to say gay people can't get married because only the church can claim the word MARRIAGE.

It's idiotic and the fact it's even being discussed speaks volumes of how otherwise intelligent people are easily derailed by intellectual fluff spawned from absolute morons. Does it really have an effect on your life, one way or the other, if Mike and Tom are married just like you and your wife, Zeph? Are they going to be somehow less functional? Will they put a bad spin on marriage? Will they somehow hurt the institution? Because last I checked, most gay couples I know haven't had one partner arrested for domestic abuse. Gay couples didn't make the divorce rate above 50%. If you're looking for something that will cheapen marriage, take a look at people who get married young because of pressure not to have a child out of wedlock, or because they can't fuck before marriage without going to hell. People who get married for stupid reasons. Not at people who happen to like the same genitalia they were born with.

There's no solid ground for the anti-gay marriage group to stand on, and it gets more obvious whenever someone tries it. There's no logic, no rationality behind it. It's just "man, gays make me feel ookie." Too fucking bad, people. That's not a good enough reason.

How ya doing, buddy?