Bucco: I asked you, in all sincerity, what it was that you found objectionable.

Seriously - do you object to two men or two women being in love? And *nowhere* did I say they did not engage in sex, I said *it's not ALL about the sex*.

The reason I got heated? Because YOUR morals are interfering in MY family's PRIVATE life.

Allowing gay marriage doesn't affect you, your marriage, your home or anything else inside your personal rights.

Banning it means something completely different to members of my family.

What if you had fallen in love with a black woman in the south in the 1940s? Would you fall back on what so many were taught? (I can't say YOU were taught that but I think you understand what I'm trying to say)

And, yes, I mention inheritance and visitation because those are the top two things when it comes to some of the injustices I've heard of. But there was a government study back in the 1990s examining this issue and they found OVER SIXTEEN HUNDRED benefits to 'marriage'. I'll grant you, many of them were pretty damn obscure but there's a LOT more than one would think.

FTR - I didn't mention the Catholic Church anywhere here. My problems with how they handled pedophiles has NOTHING to do with this topic.

And yes, you yourself are denying gays the right of self-determination. The right to marry who they want. For you, it was easy - it was within the societal 'norm'. For me, my first marriage would have started a war (Irish Catholic marrying an Irish Protestant) elsewhere (yes, I thought I was Irish back then - didn't know I was adopted).

Like it or not, marriage IS, in some aspects, a business proposition. Tax laws, joint ownership and everything in that area is covered by it. No, it shouldn't be the PRIMARY aspect - but for my uncle that I didn't particularly care for, it was. He wanted the tax write-off.

You absolutely CAN have your opinions and, believe it or not, I respect you for being open about them. Some people don't have the guts to go against 'political correctness' for fear of offending someone (some might say that's how we got our current President).

I'm not asking someone to change their opinion of something. No matter what happens, for example, I'm never going to like the color 'avocado'. But if someone else wants to paint their kitchen that color, it's none of my business.

Likewise, I'm asking people to keep their opinions out of private lives.

I'll go a little further with some honesty. I used to believe the same as you, Bucco. The thought of two men getting married was positively LUDICROUS to me when I was younger. But I had someone come into my life, a good friend, who put some stretch marks on my horizons. Between that person and many others I've met over the course of my life, I changed my mind.