Thread Hijack. A few of us are getting a wee bit heated over this topic. So I have one sort of philosophical question for some folks.
As a society, if we start recognizing gay men and women more and more, shouldn't we be redefining they way we segregate shower rooms in gyms? Instead of the strict "Men's Shower Room" and "Women's Shower Room", shouldn't we redefine this to be "Straight Women's +Gay Men's Shower Room" and "Straight Men's + Gay Women's Shower Room"?
I mean, it's not socially acceptable for a man to be checking out a woman taking a shower in a gym. What makes it acceptable that a gay man is checking out a straight man in the same shower? And if we don't solve this problem, why bother have separate shower rooms anyway?
Of course, you can have the situation that a straight man pretends to be gay for the sake of using the straight woman's shower room, but that's a separate thing.
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On topic.
1) I think marriage is church arrangement between a man and a woman. It would sadden me to have this redefined because i believe the meaning of it from a religious perspective was between man/woman. That said though….
2) The fed/state/local gov should recognize a "couple" regardless of sexual orientation, and extend the same protections and rights under the law.
One of the issues with "domestic partnership" you don't get the same rights as being "married", and this isn't just about taxes. This also applies to trusts and survivorship. Think about it. Medical insurance: some plans don't recognize domestic partnerships. Inheritance laws don't always recognize domestic partnerships, etc,etc,etc.