But fearmongering is all that conservatives know how to do to get their point across or their candidate elected.

Sorry to inform the uninformed but since mass. leagalised gay marrige they have had lots of problems in the state and lots of law suits. Parents who don't want gay matirial read to their kids have been band for setting foot on school property for complaining about it. Why don't you do a little studying and find out for yourselfs. It will degenerate a society it always has.

Pull your head out of the sand and look around. YOur ignorance is really telling.. I work in an inner city school and the family unit is quickly disappearing and I see first hand the problems students face when their is not even a mention of a dad or a mother abandons. And it is rampant!

typical comments from typical people in our culture. If it doesn't have an immediate effect then there won't be any effect at all. Instant gratification is the rule. Unfortunately choices that are made often times don't bear their fruit for years and/or generations. So much for the liberal left claiming to worry about future generations. It is plainly evident their concern is for today and today only.

Just more lunacy from the sanctimonious far-right who today try to politicize everything and bent on dividing the nation to a state similar to the Civil War era.

Redefining marriage is a threat to the country and society what russell m nelson called satans counterfeit.

The deliterious effects feared from devaluing marriage, through this and many other means for the last several decades, are generational. They are very insidious and gradual.

The effects of this most recent attempt to devalue marriage, are simply part of the accumulation and, like the others, will simply accelerate the downward spiral.

Counterfeit currencies eventually derail economies. Fannie and Freddie started delving into subprime mortgages in 1999 and they didn't start blowing up until last year. different counterfeits have different timeframes before their damage takes affect, and often even longer before it is evident, especially if you choose not to see it.

Black lung doesn't kill coal miners the first day after they stepped into the mine. It takes time.

With John C.

As a gay man, I feel that NO material regarding sexual orientation either gay or straight belongs in an elementary school.

I also have to agree with the writer of this letter. All the "sky is falling" garbage simply hasn't come to pass in any state OR country that recognizes gay marriages.

Just maybe everyone should keep their moral values when it comes to this subject and other subjects of moral values out of the schools and in the home.

This country was founded on one principal, freedom. That is why I am 100% in support of my gay friends and family who wish to get married, they deserve that freedom. I dont care about your family, just like you dont care about mine. I do care when a segment of our population is marginalized so that you can feel superior. Repression is NOT a family value.

Anyone that says, "Marriage is doing fine in the United States", has their head in the sand. If close to 50% of them are failing, there is a problem, and ignoring it or doing things that could make it worse is not progress or improvement.

Embracing gay marraige is not the solution to the problem. Efforts to proliferate gay marriage as a main-stream life style, teaching it in schools, protecting it with special laws, etc, does not solve the prolem. Not giving it legal recognition also doesn't solve the problem. It's deaper than that, but opening the gates to this and teaching our children that it's normal and good is not what some people want.

And we have a right to our opinion. We don't have to win at the election box to have our opinion, but we do need to stand up and be counted. That's the up side of living in a country where we have the right to vote on things like this.

If this ammendment passes, that doesn't mean gay people can't love each other anymore. You don't have to be married to be in love. How many hetro-couples are in love but not married?

In the 1930's in Germany, the economy was in the toilet. Identification of enemies or scapegoats as a unifying cause became rampant. The Conservative 3rd Reich went after gays and liberals as well as the jews.
We all know how that ended.

Strange, I seem to remember the same thing said about the no fault divorice, it would hurt no one, especially the children. Now studies today show that the reverse is true. It has hurt everyone, especially the children and society in general. The effects were not apparant right away, but they are now. Society is in trouble because no one wants to account for their decisions or life style. As a famous americian composer once wrote, "whats black is white and whats wrong is right." That's today!

To Anonymous - it is your remarks about not caring about anyone's family that is part of the set of problems we have in our nation. I for one care about all families as the issues that face them can and will also face me. As one poster already pointed out, part of the issue with the inner cities has to do with the slow distruction of the family. You bet I care about all families and you should as well. We need good examples in our society for all of us to relate to. When we do not support the family structure in our nation we will soon reap the consequences. There are consequences to our choices and in November we have the responsibility to go to the ballot box and vote for those proposals that we feel best supports the people of this nation. Get involved and know your facts. Take the emotion out of this arugument and look at what is best for the nation, your state and community.

anonymous 12:52 is drawing a very ludicrous analogy. Opposition to gay marriage existed long before the current economic issues raised their heads. It's beyond a stretch to say anyone is looking at gay marriage supporters as scapegoats for the collapse of the housing market. He seems to forget that the nazis called themselves national socialists - not quite the same thing as a conservative. Socialists have always been closer to the left than the right.

Think back on your elementary school days.. All day you talk about families in an in direct way! You read stories about kids interacting with their moms and dads.. It is not that they teach and talk about marriage! It is because that is our basic unit and everything we study refers to it..

I can not believe people are so stupid to think that gay marriage will not find its way into our schools.

It will!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just like there are people in Utah who drink alcohol and coffee, there are also people who are in same-sex relationships.

Sorry, folks. Even in Pleasantville these things exist.

To each his own and live-and-let live is what makes America great!

re: Excuse Me

Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! Don't scare me like that!

Having grown up in the Bay Area, where this issue is at the forefront, I have followed the Prop. 8 campaign closely. The issue at hand is not whether the traditional family will disintegrate or if religions will have to perform gay marriages. That is an ancillary result It concerns whether or not a person can be forced to accept a lifestyle they do not agree with, morally. The gay marriage issue in California is not about marriage, since all the benefits of marriage are given in civil unions. By forcing the term "marriage," it forces acceptance of the gay lifestyle. It goes beyond tolerance. SF mayor Gavin Newsome even said, while speaking on gay marriage "It is going to happen now, whether you like it or not." Such actions have already taken place, such as the teacher who took her students on a field trip to her lesbian wedding. Or how a gay CA legislator tried to create "Harvey Milk Day," so school children would learn about Harvey Milk, a SF councilman whose only notoriety was that he was gay. The problem is the forced acceptance of a lifestyle some view as morally wrong.

2 bits wrote, "If this ammendment passes, that doesn't mean gay people can't love each other anymore. You don't have to be married to be in love."

With respect, you go first. You don't need to be married, either.

But I think the better solution is to permit you to marry AND to permit me to marry.

That way, we both win. And we build a stronger and fairer society for all.

The logic of gays and theirsupported is just pplain silly.

It's not bad because nothing bad has happened in few years.

maybe you actually open your eyes.

The worst hasn't even begun.

Civilizations don't crumble in few years when something happens.

It can take decades.

But it has already begun:

homosexuality in grade scool literature and education.

Attacks against the boy scouts depriving them of fair use and public monies..

The forced closure of an catholic adoption agency.

Firemen force the march in a gay pride parade by orders of their boss.

Great rise in single parent households, causing a corresponding rise in societal ills.

Church leaders in canada and in europe arrested for hate speeech, for talking out against homosexualty in their churches.

Severe under population problems, related ecomoinc problems in europe because people are not having children.

And the list goes on and on.

only four years?

The teacher did not take the kids to her lesbian wedding - the teacher took the day off school so she could get married at city hall. One of the parents thought it would be cool for the children to be there to support their teacher. The PARENT sought and received permission to arrange the field trip. Parents who did not want their children to go were allowed to opt the child out.

(Search "Class surprises lesbian teacher on wedding day" for the facts.)

Honestly, Honesty, your post wasn't very honest.

How do you link the rise in single parent households to gay marriage? where's the cause and effect? And the reasons people aren't having as many children is because they've turned gay? Again, where's the relationship?

Please name a church leader "arrested" for expressing religious views about homosexuality.

With everything going on in the world, this is the biggest threat to "civilization" ?

Whether or not there is gay marriage, there will be gay families. The children of these families will attend school with children who have married heterosexual parents, remarried heterosexual parents, divorced heterosexual parents, and parents who are not married.

As school discussions focus on families, many of these different types of families will be discussed. This is an acknowledgment of the fact that families come in all shapes and sizes. It is not an indoctrination nor is it taught that one type of family is better than another.

Would you rather that some children are excluded?

So I thought lying was considered a sin as well but I guess that you get to lie if you think God is on your side. For the truth go to the Mormons for marriage website.

John C.,

"Parents who don't want gay matirial read to their kids have been band for setting foot on school property for complaining about it."

Parents are the least of the problems. Parents are being forced to address this problem but so are the religious institutions in Massachusetts.

For example, in Boston Catholic Charities have been forced to stop providing adoption services because they refuse to provide adoption services to same-sex couples in violation of their religious beliefs.

They were forced to choose just like the Church will be forced to choose. This isn't some unfounded fear as this writer has suggested instead it's a rational belief based on the facts. As time wears on more and more people will come under attack for opposition to same-sex marriage. Religious institutions will face greater persecution and parents will be arrested for protecting their children from bad influences which teach them that inappropriate behaviors are alright.

The Church has stated that "These developments will create serious clashes between the agenda of the secular school system and the right of parents to teach their children traditional standards of morality."

Is this an unfounded fear or one based on what they have seen?

"Please name a church leader "arrested" for expressing religious views about homosexuality."

Ake Green of Switzerland spent a month in jail for teaching that homosexuality is a sin.

Here is what their Constitution says about freedom of speech, religion and assembly:

"The freedom of faith and conscience is guaranteed.
(2) Every person has the right to freely choose his or her religion or non-denominational belief and to profess them alone or in community with others" and "freedom of opinion and information is guaranteed. (2) Every person has the right to form, express, and disseminate his or her opinions freely."

Compare this to our Constitution which states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,..."

This is but one example and there are many others but even more importantly than these more obvious violations of religious liberty is the attacks on Churches in the U.S., who are now faced with those who are arguing that we have to open our Churches to same-sex marriages based on public accommodation laws, and that religious charities have to have recognize same-sex marriages for adoption purposes.

“Lucky they don't go to jail” and “No more LDS Family Services”

Catholic Charities in Boston was acting as a STATE institution. They were receiving STATE money to place children who were in the custody of the STATE. STATE institutions cannot discriminate.

LDS Family Services functions as a religious institution and has faced no legal challenges.

A Methodist organization in New Jersey was receiving a STATE PROPERTY tax exemption in return for opening a boardwalk pavilion to public use. They rented this building out for various ceremonies and events. They refused to rent it to a couple that wanted to hold a commitment ceremony. The state ruled that this was a violation of the public use for which they were receiving a PROPERTY tax exemption. If the Methodist organization wants to pay the $200 yearly PROPERTY tax, they can do so and rent the building to whomever they want.

"Is this an unfounded fear . . . ?"

Yes. Please see the post by "Just the facts please ..." at 7:49 this morning.

Actually, Ake Green is from Sweden and was sentenced to a month in jail. He appealed and was acquitted.

Sweden has a law against hate speech. Ake Green was charged with violating this law. Also of interest: Ake Green did not just give a sermon condemning homosexuality in church - he typed it up and had the papers publish it. (Which is how it came to the attention of the public in the first place.)