I wonder if anyone that has signed up for this wonderful alliance has ever been divorced. Or committed adulterly. Or domestic violence.

What a bunch of sanctimonious bullshit.

Besides, isn't this little hootenany being run by noted ethicists and moral puritans Jim Ellis and John Coleyandro?

For the life of me I just cannot understand what the hetros are so afraid of with me getting hitched with my partner of ten years. I think much of it is a complete loss of understanding of marriage and how legally it works; i.e. in most hetro marriages, there are actually two weddings. One, the pretty church wedding with a religious meaning. And two, the legal document that is a government action.

I think the anger from hetros comes from the religious ceremony part. They don't want to see two guys getting married in their church, etc. They don't seem to get that if your church doesn't want to have gay weddings (if one day they are legalized) they don't have to.

In reality, (not counting the new Texas constitutional amendment) my partner and I are already "married" in a legal sense. All of our assets are in a Texas LLP partnership, we have wills leaving everything to each other and we have power of attorney on each other. We also have medical release forms allowing each of us to visit and make decisions about each other should the need arise. Though all of this paperwork was expensive and is somewhat cumbersome, it does all mimic a true hetro marriage. What it does not do, however, is give us rights under SSI.

My point is this, since there are many couples like us already living under a quasi-marriage status quo, what do they fear? Or is just ignorance? Or both?

Yes, gayinmidland, it's the religious dimension of marriage that has their puritan panties all in a twist. My preferred compromise is to get government out of the marriage business. Leave that to religion, but have the state issue only civil unions for everybody, with the full array of benefits currently conveyed through a marriage license.

Having a marriage both certified by "God" and "city hall" is a bridge between church and state that shouldn't exist anyway. People should be free to worship in a religion that discriminates against homosexuals. Small, stupid people in their small, stupid religions. Getting the state out of the marriage business and into the civil union business would secure more rights for homosexuals and sever this church-state connection.

It was really a treat to see the House sponsors of HJR 6 have to admit during the Floor Debate that their proposed amendment could do nothing to stop gay weddings and commitment ceremonies in gay friendly churches across Texas. My oh My did they sputter when confronted about whether they were going to preclude gays and lesbians from expressing their commitments in religious services. Their puny version of God is just too small to recognize that for some gays and lesbians faith matters and that Churches across Texas are willing to give religious blessing to gay and lesbian unions, whether or not Talton and Chissum approve.