With thanks to Waldo, this is the map of Europe with recognized gay marriage in green and civil unions (or their equivalent) in red:
The most disturbing factoid that I learned on Tax Day was that the average American must now spend a full twenty-four hours filling out tax forms. That's three work days. Or, think of it this way: if you had to put in two hours per night after dinner to finish your taxes, that's two weeks (with Sundays off). I saw a talking head economics professor on some Philly TV channel pontificating about how Americans procrastinate. He was laughing. The IRS guy they interviewed actually said, "Tick, tick, tick." You have to wonder if Governor Ruth Ann Minner and her cohorts put in twenty-four hours pondering whether or not to give Kraft Foods $708,000 of our State taxes while demanding that school districts return $8-10 million each?
Comments
Let's take it a step further; in most European Countries in order to marry ones "contract" is solely the purview of the state--a wedding in a church is merely a choice and individual makes. The clergy are not authorized to wed a couple for the State.
Our nation, which claims to have separation of church and state has given the clergy a role in officiating in the execution of a legal contract between a couple. If we want true separation of church and state; we would adopt something similar to the European system. At that point any objections to gay marriage by religious groups while mildly distressing would not be germane.
Hank