If anyone takes a stance against gay marriage, or their lifestyle; does that make them a bigot, sexist, homophobic, browbeater, or one who persecutes with their own religion? I think so. Instead of making the effort to love and accept people who are different from themselves, these people have chosen to browbeat and persecute with their own religion. They claim the communal dimension is virtually nonexistent when it comes to same-sex relationships; that such relationships should never be deemed equivalent to, or even an alternative to marriage. Activist say same-sex relationships are static, self-focused, and center almost exclusively on what the relationship delivers for the two partners, not what it represents to the supportive families or the society.
             Gay families have arrived in suburban America, in small town America, in Bible belt America, and in all corners of the country. There are now more than 160,000 families with two gay parents and roughly a quarter of a million children spread across 96% of the U.S. counties. That's not counting the kids being raised by single gay parents, because such households aren't tracked. The number of kids with gay parents keeps growing. 1 in 3 lesbian couples were raising children in 2000, up from 1 in 5 in 1990. The number of male couples raising children in 2000 jumped from 1 in 20 to 1 in 5 during the same period. (Gary Gates, Urban Institute Demographer: U.S. Census, 2000)
             The gay's family dream has not been without cost though. Gay parents and their kids, in many parts of the country, frequently are met with friction from the outside world. It comes in the form of scornful family members, insensitive classmates, and laws that treat same-sex parents differently from straight parents. Many traditional-marriage advocates argue that marriage is first and foremost about procreation. The reason for marriage is not about affirming somebody's love for somebod...