And then, the next morning, my thrill was crushed a little when I heard that Prop 8 in CA passed.  Plus the same law in other states.  No more gay marriages in CA.

I’m a Catholic.  I have been a Catholic for my entire life.  I have my own, religion-based qualms about whether or not gay people should be allowed to marry (I think they should, RC thinks they shouldn’t…).  Howeved, had I been a resident of California, I would have voted a strong NO on Proposition 8.

As an American, as long as marriage is a state-sanctioned institution (aka you don’t have to be Catholic or Mormon or anything to get a MARRIAGE certificate), I feel that blocking marriage between two consenting adults, regardless of sexual preference, is absurd. If you’re trying to protect the sanctity of marriage, why don’t you fight to allow only those who get married in the church to be called “Married”? Everyone else can be domestic partners (because, you know, that’s totally. the. same. right?).

(note – I posted this as a comment in bstewart23′s blog)

One thing that I’ve heard brought up by supporters of the prop is the idea that allowing gay marriages would strip the churches of their right to say NO to a gay couple who approaches them to get a marriage in their church.  There’s a lively, intelligent discussion on this and some other issues in this blog post over at babble.  From what I read (there and other places), this is false.  And if it was true, and a gay couple tried to sue a Roman Catholic church for not allowing them to get married there (you know, by a priest), I would say that the RC would probably win – that is discriminating on the RC’s right of religious expression.  Is this right?  Is this fair?  Is this discriminatory?

I think it’s hard, where social rights mesh with the rights against freedom of religious expression.  I’m not a lawyer and I’m not fully educated on this issue (although I have some serious reading to do over the next week).  If you know any more about this, or have a different viewpoint, please let me know. I am most certainly missing some of the pieces here.

Comments encouraged.  Hateful comments deleted.