New Hampshire Voters Support Gay Marriage Repression

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon05/11/112705nhPoll.htm

A new poll shows that a majority of New Hampshire voters support a legislature appointed commission that recommends denying legal status to same- sex couples.

Fifty-eight percent of those interviewed said they support changing New Hampshire's constitution to define marriage as a union only between a man and a woman, according to the survey released Sunday by the Concord Monitor.

Thirty-one percent oppose the change and 11 percent aren't sure.

The poll was conducted by Research 2000 from November 20th through 22nd. A total of 600 likely voters were interviewed by telephone. The margin for error was plus or minus four percentage points.

I hear something like this, I wonder what the hell is wrong with people.

Sts. Serge and Bachus were gay lovers, and were given a church blessing of their union.....the whole same-sex marriage thing didn't even become an issue until the fifth century.

gahhhhhhhhh........

I have friends who I consider fairly progressive, but they oppose gay marriage. So I quiz them: Do you support the rights of gays and lesbians to have the same spousal benefits as married couples? They say yes.
Do you support the rights of gays and lesbians to adopt children? They say yes.
Do you support anti-discrimination laws for gay and lesbian couples? They say yes.
Then I respond, "Well it sounds like you support gay marriage!"
Then they'll say no, we support unions but not marriage. I JUST DON'T GET IT. It's as if the only thing they oppose is the WORD marriage. It's just silliness - you support all the "constructs" of marriage but not the marriage itself. I've stopped arguing with them about their lack of logic on this issue.

a fair amount because it came up here in Mass. a lot. It's part of a semirational scheme if how people rate each other in general. Every status conceded gay couples turns out, imho, to reflect an assessment and theory of how 'defective' gay people are. If course it's not at new scheme- it's been there in caste, class, ethnic, and race relations, religious community relations, and hetero relations...everywhere where human beings have drawn lines that have no permanent value.

no recognition -> third class people or nonhuman, accursed/rejected. Demonically possessed to varying degrees.
'domestic partnerships' -> human but definitely materially and spiritually inferior beings, utterly second class citizens. Probably genetically defective or something.
'civil unions' -> materially fully human but spiritually not, thus legally borderline/partly equal. Psychologically "different"/icky and/or misraised.
full marriage -> real people with real souls, equal citizens. Just variants of a common humanity (many sadly/still rather traumatized).

So the final step is imho indeed a 'religious' argument.

For your friends you have to subtly raise the question of whether they truly believe gay people don't have souls. I wouldn't do it directly, of course- you'll only get denial and anger and lost friendships and hostility out of making it an idea that you make political, i.e. position between yourself and them.

It's a question they will (sensibly enough) only truly change their answer to as a matter of pure conscience and good firsthand evidence, so every manipulation or pressure exerted is obviously counterproductive- and evidence against you.

Is this situation of being judged fair- no, of course not. But remember what it means to break down and admit to yourself that a person you ignored or abhorred is a true soul, an absolutely significant and true entity in the flow of Life you experience- you cannot but be awed and feel, at least for a moment, that ineffable human sense of care and awe and togetherness that is love. So every person breaking down and seemingly glibly and coldly but truthfully saying "I think I was wrong, maybe gay people deserve to get marriage rights after all" has touched such a precious moment all inner fire. And crossed a line for themselves inwardly that shocked them, yet made them more fully and truly human.

Appreciation of that was the thunderously awe-filled sense on the pro-marriage side in the days after the announcement of the Goodridge verdict here in Massachusetts. Absolutely no one expected how overwhelming it was psychologically. It was far beyond vindication. Those days I finally understood what the Civil Rights Era was really fueled by emotionally and spiritually. The realization of new creative freedom is truly ecstatic as an experience.