Comments about ‘Hundreds take to S.L. streets to protest, support Prop. 8 ban on gay marriage’

What the LDS Church does with its doctrine is fine --- confined to their homes, churches, temples.

When they support their members to vote on how gays live their lives is WRONG. Yes, they interfere --- because the legislation directly impacts how they lives their lives.

And call marriage holy and sactimonious all you want. By your own logic, what do you call the hundreds of thousands that get married civilly every year at city halls?

We will not take anything less than marriage.

Rosa Parks called... and she, like us, refuse to sit on the back of the bus anymore by what you will give us --- domestic partnerships and civil unions. Separate but equal is inherently unequal.

As far as vandalism on places of worship --- it is wrong, and most protests have been peaceful.

Please understand that the LGBT community has lived with hate crimes, slurs, homophobia, discrimination for years --- some way before they came out.

Any kind of hate is wrong.

But we will win this, even if you do not like it.

Haven't your church leaders taught you to be kinder and less judgmental towards your brothers and sisters? I know I am trying to follow that admonition.

I'm glad I live in Riverton.

Do you think if I had a choice I would have chosen:

* harrassment
* alientation from family, friends, co-workers, school
* ridicule
* less benefits at work
* depression


many, like me, have "tried" to go "straight," to no avail --- just breaking other people's hearts. It's not fair to the hetero community, and it's not fair to us.

What exactly is wrong with marching? --- as long as it is peaceful?

Many would would to pour their millions, keep their voice secret, and then run away and hide, wanting to maintain their views and bigotry, yes, bigotry, secret and undisclosed.

We do it out in the open --- we have our voices heard. It is also part of the democratic process.

This is a right whose time has come.

We have waited too long for this right --- keeping what the majority would give us --- but no more.

We will petition the courts --- I know some of you don't like that, but sorry to break the news, courts are also part of the democratic process, else, why have them?

We will march.

We will speak with our neighbors, families, friends, co-workers --- not to spread "a lifestyle" - as some may call it, but to petition to have equal rights and protection under the law.

I can't believe that in 2008, we are having to request equal rights.

Marriage has always been, is now, and always will be, a heterosexual institution by its very nature. It has never been a government endorsement of sexual pleasure or love - it has always been, is now and always will be a government endorsement of stable heterosexual relationships as the very core of society's continued existence.

Gay activists' stunningly hateful, violent, and fundamentally evil response to their fair-and-square democratic loss will reap a whirlwind of traditional conservative reaction the likes of which they have never seen. They are truly awakening the sleeping giant.

The line is drawn here. No further. This is a fight for our nation's very survival.

I would like to take a minute to thank the LDS Church. If they hadn't entered the Prop 8 fight and had their members working so feverishly to repeal it, yes, gay marriage would be legal in California now, but this great cross-country awakening of gay people and the straight people who support them would not have occurred.

I was at the rally yesterday to support my gay sister and it was a very moving experience. (The media may have focused almost entirely on the anti-gay protesters, but that was a very small part of a very large event and most people there just ignored them.)

And now other people, people who maybe never really thought about it before, and people who truly do believe in the separation of church and state, will begin to see what all this boils down to is that millions of their fellow citizens, fellow citizens who work and pay their taxes just like they do, still do not have the same rights as the majority does.

And they will recognize that in the United States of America, where liberty and justice are supposed to be for ALL, that this is just not right.

Why should heterosexuals have the right to tell gay people what they CAN and CANNOT do?

When will gay people have the chance or opportunity to vote on the status, rights and privileges of OTHER PEOPLE'S marriages?

Mr. Gardner,

Please explain to me how this is about children's rights? A child deserves to be raised in a stable environment-- not in a two-year contract which is what "traditional" marriage has devolved to. Over half of the nations marriages end in divorce. Why would you want to deny a group of people that just want that 50/50 chance so that they can have thier OWN families? Contrary to some deranged comments, LGBT families are not out to get your children or destroy your marriage. They want to protect thier children, and protect thier families. No more children should suffer the fate of Lawrence King.

Think about it, when you tell LGBT people they cannot marry--you are possibly denying your own flesh and blood the right to pursue their happiness. If two people love each other, you don't have to support it, or even condone it...but to stand in the way of it is inhuman.

We very much appreciate your reasoned and passionate plea for equality and understanding. Unfortunately not all those from the LGBT share your level-headedness. Even though they carry signs that decry our supposed hatred and bigotry against them-it is they who hate and destroy in the name of tolerance.

It is important for you and those that stand with you to understand that there is not one iota of hatred or bigotry emanating out of the LDS church or even from the overwhelming majority of its members.

It is all a matter of pure semantics, as you already have civil unions recognized nationwide with all the attendant rights and privileges that regular hetero marriages have as well.

But, know you are not satisfied wanting the rest of the world to totally accept you and your lifestyle by changing the very definition of marriage that has existed from the beginning of time.

Just as we can not call not a horse a cow, neither can we call a civil union between two men or two women a marriage. You can live however you want and we will grant you all the same rights you crave-but we will not call it a marriage.

I find the backlash against the LDS church interesting. As has been mentioned, it seems the LDS church is being singled out because of its stand on preserving marriage. I think there is more to that than its support of Preposition 8. The gay and lesbian community is waging aware not on civil rights, but on the doctrine of ordained marriage. I feel the recent protests and push for "equal rights" is not so much a push for rights as it is a push for a change in Mormon values. It seems like in the gay and lesbian community, there is more of a desire for justification of their behavior rather than equal rights. The Church will not change its stand, and I suppose many in the gay and lesbian community will not as well. We might try the novel concept of agreeing to disagree and live civilly towards one another

There have been comments that gay's that have left heterosexual marriages are destroying marriage. Has anyone ever stopped to think that if they could have married the person they wanted to in the first place...those sham marriages would have never happened?

How many suicides could be prevented if families didn't disown thier own children for being gay?

How many families would be saved from tragedy if they could only have the same rights as thier neighbor.

There is not a person in the world that does not know a gay person. They may not know who it is...but they know them. Oftentimes, they are your sister, your brother, your neighbor, your best friend. But they are afraid to tell you because they are afraid that in being true to themselves, they'll lose you. You don't have to agree with gays, you don't have to like them...but try to imagine how you would feel if you lost a loved one because someone couldn't look beyond hate. How would you feel if someone told you that a farm animal being raised for slaughter had more value than your family?

"Once same-sex marriage is 'legal', will the government then attempt to REQUIRE churches to marry same-sex couples, regardless of that church's moral opposition?"

I've heard that people have been told that this will be the case but IT IS NOT AND NEVER will be.

Think about it, no church is ever forced to marry people it doesn't want to marry. A friend of mine had a hard time getting married in the Catholic Church, even though he IS Catholic and so was his then fiance, (now his wife), because the maid of honor was a Wiccan and the priest at his parish refused to marry them because he objected to her religion.

Churches have always been able to refuse to marry whoever they don't want to marry, even if it is one of their own members to another. This will not change.

I am active LDS and totally opposed to gay marriage. That said the appears to be a great deal of confusion over the difference between rights and priviledges.

In the American system "anything not specifically forbidden is allowed."

Gay marriage is specifically forbidden.

This seems to be more of an issure for a dictionary.

Marriage means the union between a man and a woman.

Gay people are not happy with that. They want the word changed.

Heterosexual means the sexual attraction between a man and a woman. Perhaps the gay community wants that word redefined also. After all isn't the fact that the word heterosexual is defined as it is take away gay's rights to be called heterosexuals.

It seems to me Californians voted on keeping the meaning of the word marriage as it is traditionally.

Should there be a different word for a man and a women who live together as a couple versus a man and a man living together as a couple? Moral issue? Semantics issue? Whatever it is the California population has spoken on it's position.

Come on sir.

The truth stands alone as the truth. And it not just the LDS church or the other faiths that joined with it in support of Prop 8, but God himself who mandated the definition of marriage.

As a gay man, you probably have little or no use for any type of deity in your life, but that does not alter the fact that there is a loving God of us all that cares about you and your children.

Flame away friend, but all the posturing in the world will change this basic fact of nature.

Although you find it hard to stomach a country ruled by majority law, perhaps you might enjoy some totalitarian country that not only targets gays, but murders them on a regular basis. I have lived in such a nation and tell you that such places do exist. Not sure that you would like it there.

You (and your partner) have every right that my wife and I do. So, please quit whining about that which you can not have.

Truth is truth and it is not on your side.

Actually John, Gay Marriage does threaten all marriages. Like someone printing exact replicas of our Canadian Dollar and then flooding them into the market, in which case my own bills are now devalued.

Same-sex marriage here in Canada has clearly made marriage less valued socially. It has "Hallmarkized" (anyone can pick them up, for little investment, and they hold much less value than a traditional card) marriage here and as a result fewer people are getting married. The problem is that people are still having children at the same rate, but now these children have mothers with partners instead of mothers and fathers.

The right of a child to have a mother and a father alone outweighs all of your arguments in favor of SSM.

My comments seam to be getting cut too.

The gays have a basic right that they should use. They have the right to leave the country.

Actually Carlos it was not 51/49 (never let a good rant get in the way of the truth). The results were 52.5% to 47.5%. That is a spread of 5%. And if just 5% of Californians took to the streets the way these 'fringers' have it would shut down the entire state.

Up Democracy, down Mob Rule! America is not spelled A-N-A-R-C-H-Y.