Marriage means several different things to several different groups. By my count, there are 5 meanings and they are totally independent:
1) A personal commitment to remain faithful and/or declaration of love.
– requires no intervention by government, religious instututions or lawyers.
2) A personal commitment to remain faithful with legal repercussions.
– requires lawyers only.
3) A financial agreement
– requires lawyers only.
4) A religious ritual / status
– requires acceptance by a religious institution.
5) A change in taxable situation.
– requires acceptance by a government institution.
The gays don’t need any government ruling to implement #1-3 on their own.
They typically don’t really care what religious groups say and really have no right to tell a religious group what kind of marriage that religious group should accept.
Strangely, our society groups all these together in one “deal” called marriage.
I have no clue why this is such an emotional issue. Do gay people really care that much about how the IRS views their love life ?
I have to assume they are touched deeply by now being able to file jointly.
