Dear Angry Queer -

Please understand that radicals on both sides of this issue are using it to push their own agendas.

Banning marriage isn't terribly practical; however, getting government out of the marriage business may be. The hang-up many people of faith have with gays getting "married" is that marriage is first and foremost a spiritual institution. They perceive - and rightfully so - that radicals on the other side are using this issue to push an agenda far beyond legal rights for same-sex couples.

The rhetoric from the pro-gay marriage forces equating this issue with miscegenation laws hits the ears of many people - myself included - who would otherwise be quite sympathetic to your plight entirely the wrong way. We know from the Biblical description that Moses' wife was a Black woman, not a Black man. The Old Testament Prophet practiced miscegenation. He did not lay down with a person of the same gender. As far as the vast majority of people are concerned, the Bible and the Qur'an are unambiguous on the issue of homosexuality.

By insisting, however, that marriage remain a blessing bestowed by the government, the Christian Right is continuing to use marriage as the camel's nose in the tent to further an agenda of pushing their morality through the force of government institutions, and keeping the hope of theocratic creep alive.

The gay community has an amazing opportunity here to gain allies on the libertarian side of the political spectrum - the same right-wing folks who believe balls to bones that pot should be legal - by arguing that the government should only sanction civil unions between consenting adults regardless of gender, and that the blessings of marriage must be left to the individual churches and religious institutions.

In short, gays can gain truly equal status under the law - in perception and in fact (the fact part is already largely there in many states, including California) - by making this an argument about the separation of church and state.

Asking tens of millions of people nationwide who believe with all their hearts that they can love gays but hate the sin of homosexuality to take the leap of compromising one of the most basic and sacred of spiritual institutions is the gay movement's bridge too far. A more enlightened recognition that a secular government has no business dictating the boundaries of a spiritual institution - IOW, the government should be telling churches who they can and cannot marry - is the gay community's best chance of attaining unambiguous equal status under the law for same-sex couples.

I worked for over a year to get President Obama elected. Now, it appears that the large black turnout in California, 70% of whom, voted to ban gay marriage. We seem to have worse discrimination against our gay brothers and sisters. What a disappointment!

Simple solution for the hate: tax religion. Treat organized religion like the infomercial that it is.

CHICAGO - Coretta Scott King, speaking four days before the 30th anniversary of her husband's assassination, said Tuesday the civil rights leader's memory demanded a strong stand for gay and lesbian rights.

"I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice," she said. "But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'"

"I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people," she said.

"Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery (and) Selma (Alabama), in Albany, Georgia, and St. Augustine, Florida, and many other campaigns of the civil rights movement," King said.

She said she saluted the contributions "of these courageous men and women" who fought "for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own."

and that is why a lot of gay folk feel as if we were thrown under the bus