response 2 of 293:

Dec 2 10:31 UTC 2003

And this is by the way going to be a big issue in the upcoming election year.
Bush and his advisors are just salivating at the idea of turning the general
election into a referendum on the "institution of marriage"  Particularly if
his opponent is Howard Dean, who as governor of Vermont, signed the first such
law in the country to legalize civil unions for gays.  The Bush people will
argue that Massachusetts legalizing gay marriages is some proof that the
country is going to hell.  They will say that we ought to cling to a highly
religious, highly idealized concept of "marriage" as only being between a man
and a woman, and that somehow our society will decay if we allow gay couples
the right to get married.  I believe Bush is going to propose a constitutional
amendment to outlaw gay marriage, which the Democrats' nominee would almost
certainly oppose, and try to use that as a way of trying to make the election
into a cultural debate instead of a political debate.  It stinks but its going
to happen.