Quote from Hankstar :

I wonder exactly what they gain by fighting equality in another state...

It's part of their agenda, which is religous instead of financial. Similar to pro and anti abortionist fighting for any abortion related bill in any state. Or the gun lobby fighting any bill in any state that would regulate or restrict anything related to guns.

Serperation of church (or any idealology that include morals) and state in the USA isn't 100%. Originally, the first amendment only referred to the federal level. States were allowed to have their own religously based laws, as long as these laws didn't conflict with federal laws. Over time, this evolved to the point that only remnants of the old laws exist. Note that adultery is still illegal althogh rarely prosecuted, in some states:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adultery#Criminal_penalties

Regarding age of consent, a few female teachers in certain states received jail sentences for having sex with 17 year old boys, something that wouldn't be a crime in states where the age of consent is 17 or 16. These cases couldn't be appealed because the USA specifically allows the states to determine most of their laws, including morality based laws.

My previous comments about pedophilia were as another example of sexual orientation, clearly much more "unnatural" than homosexuality, and causing harm if the desires are acted upon. Pedofiles experience a sexual preference for children (in the USA this term is expanded by law enforcement to include any minors, apparently to stigmitize sex with minors (up to age 17) further still). Curently there is no cure: Although pedophilia has no cure at this time, various treatments are available that are aimed at reducing or preventing the expression of pedophilic behavior, again from a wiki article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedofile

Heterosexuality, bisexuality, homosexuality, and pedophilia are all sexual orientations. Currently, most societies consider heterosexuality as normal, and pedophila as very abnormal, with bisexuality and homosexuality somewhere in between. The USA is not a libeterian country, so it's not a truly "free" society. This means that the government can choose to discourage or simply to not encourage certain behaviors, even if it's not clear that any harm is being done. Regardless if you think it's right or wrong, it's the current state of the USA and most governments.

Quote from Hankstar :

I'm still waiting for a logical reason why gay people shouldn't have the same rights as me. That's all I want. "Tradition" just won't cut it. It used to be traditional to hang black people at picnics. It's still traditional (and religiously justified) in some primitive societies to bury women up to the waist and stone to death if they're victims of rape. Tradition, in and of itself, is no argument.

Hi darling.

You have to bear in mind that the USA is still the only "western" culture to endorse capital punishment, so they may not be entirely opposed to the stoning of rape victims.

From Wikipedia:

Quote :

Executions are known to have been carried out in the following countries in 2007:
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Botswana, China, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Kuwait, Libya, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, USA, Vietnam, Yemen.

Let's play "Spot the Western Executors".

Quote from JeffR :

It's part of their agenda, which is religous instead of financial.

JeffR, maybe you should state now that you are a practicing Mormon. The LDS is a commercial venture - it collects a tithe (that's 10% of income) from its membership. It makes a ****ing fortune out of them. It's busy buying up land all over the world and building the most obscenely grandiose temples on that land - that money is surely not magicked out of the church's arse.

what a pathetic thread again. And it's always the same people involved in these lovely rantings.

I'm closing this. It does not seem possible for many people here to talk in a civilised manner about these topics, causing threads to go horribly wrong. Learn to talk politely, then I don't have to close these threads.