THIS IS NOT A MATTER OF “EQUALITY”.
There could be many legal routes to “equality” under the law, and the voters and legislature of California provided it, under the states current Domestic Partnership statute.
What the opponents of Prop-8 seek is not for registered same-sex relationships to be treated “equal” but to be declared the “same as” a marriage relationship.
The terms “equal” and same do not mean the same thing; to be equal it is not necessary to be artificially declared “same as” something which one is obviously not “same as”.
Social conservatives have been right all along. The legal radicals use of the gay agenda is not about gays or their agenda - the leftists don’t really give a dam about them - it has, all along, been an assault on marriage.
The foundation of marriage IS derived from the biology and socially required responsibilities derived having children.
If human reproduction had been arranged differently and if the needs and maturation-rate of human children were different, it is possible that marriage would not have developed, as it has, and conversely, it is primarily due to those elements that it exists now.
The beginning and end of those elements and the responsibilities that flow therefrom are not contained, not fully defined, not fully required by the simple notion of the romantically committed couple.
Are there marriages without children? Yes. Are children possible to couples in ways other than natural child birth? Yes.
But those are exceptions, permitted exceptions and not foundational to the basic institution of marriage, of why it was instituted and why it will always be needed and why it needs to be protected.
Exactly. In fact, Michelangelo Signorile of The Village Voice made that same point -- admission, if you will -- in an article 10 years ago.
Marriage is "heteronormative"; that's why it has to go. It is a massive, monumental reminder that homosex is deviant and abnormal, its practitioners a tiny, hostile minority.