What is the status of Gay rights in the USA?

Question

people say the Gays want the rights to be married in churches, others say they don't have the legal benefits of mairriage a heterosexual couple have...what is the status of gay mairraige want and what do the gays want?

Answer 1

gay people are your brothers and sisters, they want the same as all of us, heck, they are all us. all everyone wants is for other people to know us for who we are and understand. if you can love after wards, great. if not, i will wait

Answer 2

The government can NEVER dictate who a church decides to marry. Religious institutions can say no to any couple - for example, a Catholic church can't be forced to marry a Jewish couple.

Some churches are very strongly pro-marriage equality now, and already perform same-sex weddings, even though they aren't state sanctioned.

Even if a same-sex couple is married in a church, they are still denied the 1000+ rights that are automatically awared to straight couples when they get married. They aren't allowed to file taxes as a couple, live together in a nursing home when they're old and wrinkly, visit each other in the hospital, share car insurance, share custody of a child, etc..... the list goes on and on.

Even in the states that currently offer same-sex unions (marriage or otherwise), the rights and priveledges associated with those unions stop at the boarder. Gay couples STILL don't get any of the national rights that straight couples get, and if they move to another state (or even go to another state on vacation), they are considered single. It's the same for gay couples who are legally married in other countries - the vast majority of US states consider them legal strangers.

Answer 3

The gay marriage fight is really a battle between two groups of religious denominations - Christian and other in both cases. That battle is being missed by the media, and I believe that the battle threatens democracy in America.

One of the reasons for the Revolution, in which ancestors of mine fought -- was to establish freedom of religion in the new nation. Now, we are throwing that away, because contrary to what those on the Right would like you to think, this is not a battle between "people of faith" and "atheists" or some such -- this is a battle between two groups of people of faith, using the government to establish one sides views -- the EXACT THING that the anti-establishmentarian clause of the Constitution is there to prevent.

Of course no one should "make" those whose faiths oppose gay marriage perform such marriages, and no one ever would. So ministers from the Southern Baptists and Assemblies of God and Ultra-Orthodox Jews and Fundamentalist Muslims should never be asked to perform gay marriages, and certainly not forced to.

On the other hand, why should faith groups that support gay marriage -- such as the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian/Universalist Society, the North American Spiritualist Church, Reform Judaism, and the Correllian Tradition of Wicca -- all recognized Churches and 501c3s be barred from practicing their religious faith, which says it is ok to marry same sex couples?

The first group of faith groups is realistically using the government to prevent the second group of faith groups from practicing what they believe. The founders tried to prevent this, for the stability of the country. It doesn't matter that everyone "thinks" they are right and others are wrong -- it matters that we are plural as a society and the government should recognize everyone's ceremonies the same -- which means that gay marriages committed by churches and faith groups that believe in gay marriages, should be honored by the government regardless of what groups that don't like it say.

Everyone's beliefs can be honored, thus preserving the values that my 12 times removed Great Grandfather died for -- but not if we allow one side to legislate away the rights of the other side.

And that's what I think.

Regards,

Reynolds Jones
http://www.rebuff.org
[e-mail]

Answer 4

Gays do not have equal rights in the US right now. Gays can be fired, thrown out of housing, and told we have no partnership rights and there is nothing to protect us.

We simply want the rights that everyone else has...

Answer 5

Actually the right to be Married is the issue, whether or not it's in a Church is not relevant. (There are Churches and religious organizations that will perform the ceremony but it won't be legally recognized).

Answer 6

Gays have no legal rights!

We are not accepted by the government therefore we are totally not allowed over 1,000 legal rights that everyone else has.

Most of the 1,000 rights revolve around our rights to choose whom we love and want to spend our lives with.

The rights to each other during times of illness and rights to estates, rights that all married and living together straight couples get without challenge.

Many utterly important and intimate rights that no one should have power over ones heart and choice but the over powerful government and IRS ............beasts of pray that they are deny us.