I wonder how much of homosexuality is natural urge or just a fad or force engineered.
Surely it can't help in making our society better if so many in very high office/authority are homosexual.
How dare faggots are drawing up policies for us normal people. This has to be hit on the head. I want normal people to set the guidelines not some deranged weirdoes.

symbolic of the overriding need for our civilisation to push sh!t back where it came from.
Squeers,
The problem we face with that is that eventually it builds up so much that it affects the brain & comes out of their mouths. Hence not much sense getting past their lips.

G'day Saltpetre… You threw the kitchen sink at that first post, but always an interesting read. Squeers... do we now know just how low you can get? Do you think Pomeranians are cute?

Like most here I've written my opinions on same-sex unions before, but since repetition doesn't seem to be a barrier to posting, I'll take another go.

That the government recognises and ensures same-sex unions have the equivalent legal status to heterosexual marriage – I'm satisfied with. The individuals in the various types of relationship will use whatever form of words they wish to describe their own situation regarless of the law… Numbers of people I know who are 'legally married' would describe themselves as 'together', 'separated for the moment', 'working things out' and so on. Some would even describe themselves as 'happily married'.

It is obvious many people regard the word marriage as precious – as is their attitude about the word and who gets to use it. Okay… Keep it. That way people can shut up about about how marriage is being denigrated or destroyed, since only heterosexuals will be allowed to be described as 'married' – only heterosexuals in such relationships can be blamed for all the problems.

All those who wish to be described as 'wedded' or 'espoused' et cetera, can then get on with their lives with as much mutual love, trust, support and reliance as they can manage.

Wouldn't that be nice?

Squeers,

"My concern is that gays are getting more conservative, if they're talking marriage, rather than society becoming more tolerant, democratic and enlightened...."

Nicely put.

Personally, I'm inclined to see the phenomenon as just another adaptation to life in the industrialised urban world. Living in vast impersonal urban conglomerations has hugely altered human experience. Individual rights and privacy are more likely to be legislated for, and any shift in social acceptance, as is presently occurring in respect to gay relationships, is likely to be pursued by its beneficiaries to win legal sanction.

(Just on the subject of industrial and urban life being made possible because of sh!t management. It's so true. Anyone who delves back to the dawn of industrialisation will realise that life among the new towns that sprang up to service the mills and factories was squalid in the extreme. People lived surrounded by dung heaps. If there was a putrid "privvy" shared by twenty or so tenements, then you were considered lucky. Sewage, drainage and sanitation in general, made the modern world possible. Everything we now take for granted flows from that point.)

Pelican,
We use different words to discribe different things or events, that is why we have words like ships and yachts, bulls and steers, bedrooms and kitchens. We have fingers and toes and everyone knows exactly what is meant. Imagine the confusion if we did away with the word toes and called them fingers. Further explanation would be required to define what was being spoken about.

There is a need for a different word to describe same sex unions because they are different to an opposite sex union, which we call marriage.

I have no objection to homosexuals having a legal union but there is no need to hyjack an already well defined word for that.

I think the only reason for homosexuals to want the word marriage is because it denotes a more respectable image generally.

Same sex unions are different and should require a different word to describe them. Perhaps we should hold a competition to come up with the best word or words.

Judging by individual's comments, "normal" is code for belligerence, intolerance and insecurity.

Nothing ever really alters in the historical narrative from the perspective of the white, middle-class puritan male.