We will be free ...

Straight people, by and large, just don't get why gays and lesbians want to marry. (In fact, straight people often don't understand why we say "gays and lesbians", as opposed to just "gays" to cover both men and women. It's because, besides same-sex attraction, socially and culturally, gays and lesbians have often very different personal and professional agendas.)

Anyway, we want to get married because our relationships are as real as everyone else and deserve the exact same protections.

But here is the rub: Marriage is one of the only institutions in our allegedly secular culture where organized religion gets to sink its claws. Marriage that takes place beyond the confines of a church or synagogue is -- and should be -- understood to be a purely secular legal contract between two individuals.

Let's face it, straight marriage has always had more to do with the bequeathing of wealth and property to a person's heirs than some transcendent god's moral proclivities. And in contemporary culture, if half the shows on Lifetime and TLC are anything to go by, about selling really ugly dresses to really high-maintenance women ...

in reference to: D.C. Council Moves to Permit Same-Sex Marriage - washingtonpost.com (view on Google Sidewiki)