Shouldn't be recognized
It is a crushing blow to the homosexual community to not be able to get married. But though gay marriage was vetoed, it might encourage people to try harder for what they believe.
It is also disappointing that Maine would be one of the states that oppresses a group of people. But then, why would homosexuals want to enter, through a ceremony, the same status as a group that denies them and shows hatred toward them?
I firmly believe that marriage shouldn't even be recognized by the state. How can something that the state recognizes be denied to people who live in that state?
I believe everyone should have civil unions, and that marriage shouldn't be recognized by the state because of its religious properties. If marriage is to be a religious ceremony, the state should not recognize it.
So don't deny homosexuals, but deny the selective religious ceremony that targets people of this great nation. We the people are not the people if we don't all have the same rights.
Brent Couture, Lewiston
jchick says
Marrige = one man + one woman. It is the foundation of the family, which is the building block of society.
For this reason, governments protect the institution of marriage and offer incentives in the form of bennefits and privileges. (There is also the ulterior motive... it encourages couples to have more children, which increases the population, which increases the tax base.)
BUT THE GOVERNMNET DID NOT INVENT OR CREATE MARRIAGE, CIVIL, RELIGIOUS OR OTHERWISE. And the government certainly has no authority to redifine it.
This is NOT about equal rights. We are ALL born with equal rights. If gay couples want the same bennefits and privileges afforded to them that are currently afforded to married couples, then get the legislature to do so without changing the definition of marriage.
John A. Chick
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." -- Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Colonel Charles Yancey (January 6, 1816)