Ok Vertas,

I have to first say that the link listing a number of the old testemant laws was asbolutely hysterical. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time, and even though I was baptized catholic I do tend to point out the absurdity of a number of the "laws" to people that often present themselves to be fundemental christians or jews.

With that being said Im going to try to express a view on the gay vs straight marriage issue. It's not necessarily my view, more of a clinical and objective view. (I would state mine, but Im in the library right now studying for my torts law final and really dont have that much time to ramble on.)

Anyways, marriage can be taken two ways in this country - religious or legal. You brought up a predominantely legal focus upon it, so we will stay there!

IS banning homosexual couples from marriage unconstitutional? Probably not, but it does depend. It seems to be the case that the constitution allows indidivual statues to regulate and protect the morality of their citizens (why things like obscenity in pornography laws are constitutional). Since it really has been left to the individual states visa vi the bill of rights, the Supreme Court of the United States may be very cautious about jumping into the situation for a couple of reasons. The first being that they would be entering into a current political issue, something they like to avoid if at all possible (Remember the criticism for Bush v. Gore?). The second being that until state supreme courts have conflicting rules, and the US congress passes a law that contradicts one of those rulings, a homosexual couple might not be able to even get in before the supreme court.

So it really comes down to what the constitutions of each state says. Yes, straight couples are offered more bonuses or benefits when married but is that something that insurance companies and hospitals HAVE to offer to everyone? Im not so sure that it is. Also, does the government have to make all funds and benefits equally available to all groups? Again, Im not so sure that they do. Government quite often gives money to certain groups while taking it from others. Hello Social Security!! It also gives money to minorities while the majority is excluded from touching it.

I will try to finish this later, my study group is here!