Now that Gay Pride Week is over, I would like to make some observations.

I live in Seattle, one of the most liberal areas in the United States. Here, gays and lesbians are protected against discrimination in hiring, housing, and all sorts of other areas. Even though it is not called marriage, we have all the rights of married people. These rights were won through a state-wide election, not through action of the legislature.

I will move back to Ohio in a few weeks. I know that Ohio does not offers these rights to gay people. I will do everything in my power to become a gay activist and to get our human rights that we deserve.

good luck

Oh good God, not another one...

You have made what, 100 threads about this exact same topic?

jmog;408323 wrote:Oh good God, not another one...

You have made what, 100 threads about this exact same topic?

No, I never discussed this particular issue before.

I thertainly hope things work out tho well for you 'fella.

Good for you. I will stand behind you.

berry;408345 wrote:Good for you. I will stand behind you.

You don't mean that literally do you?

^^^You beat me to it.

Are you moving back to the Steubenville area? I realize Ohio is not exactly the left coast, but you do realize Columbus has one of the highest gay populations per capita in the country. I read all the time it is one of the "gay friendliest" cities in America (if there is such a thing). There is a pretty big festival here and the Short North and the German Village have numerous gay friendly businesses. Cleveland is also a very gay-friendly city. I think they are holding the next gay olympics there.

I don't know how long you have been gone, but it is not as if Ohio and its citizens are a bunch of gay haters or anything. If anything they bend over backwards for them to show how progressive minded they are on the topic.

ccrunner609;408366 wrote:So if your gay and you like some other guy you should get special treatment? Dont get it.

So if you're a straight man and like some gal, you should get special treatment? Don't get it.

ccrunner609;408366 wrote:So if your gay and you like some other guy you should get special treatment? Dont get it.

Since when is marriage "special treatment?" Straight people do it all the time. All we're asking is for the same rights straight people have. We just want to be treated equally.

We are also not trying to take anyone else's rights away. Addiing sexual orientation to anti-discrimination laws doesn't deprive anyone of the rights they already have.

FairwoodKing;408374 wrote:So if you're a straight man and like some gal, you should get special treatment? Don't get it.

Nope. Not at all. State sanctioned marriage should be abolished in my opinion. Special benefits should not exist for anyone married.

All necessary things required for a committed couple could be made available through a simple notarized authorization.

Fight for that and I will support you. Fight to reduce the involvement of the State in any marriage.

It's kind of funny that I will be moving back to Steubenville, one of the few cities in this country most definitely named after a gay man. The good Baron was really the black sheep of his family.

Male + Female = Marriage

Male + Male = Wrong

Mr. 300;408336 wrote:I thertainly hope things work out tho well for you 'fella. Now i'm moving to seattle.

fixed

FairwoodKing;408333 wrote:No, I never discussed this particular issue before.

You are really trying to make me believe you have never discussed "gays and lesbians being protected against discrimination in hiring, housing, and all sorts of other areas."

You can't be serious...

Tiger2003;409052 wrote:Male + Female = Marriage

Male + Male = Wrong

You're the one who's wrong. I know a lesbian couple in Seattle who have been together for 40 years. If they lived in Ohio and something happened to one of them, the other would not necessarily have visitation rights in the hospital and could be deprived of attending the funeral. This is wrong and it is the type of thing that we gays are fighting for.

FairwoodKing;409390 wrote:You're the one who's wrong. I know a lesbian couple in Seattle who have been together for 40 years. If they lived in Ohio and something happened to one of them, the other would not necessarily have visitation rights in the hospital and could be deprived of attending the funeral. This is wrong and it is the type of thing that we gays are fighting for.

Deprived of attending funerals and hospital visitation?

I can go to just about any hospital and visit friend, family or even stranger without permission provided I do it within hospital visitation hours and rules. Funerals? I've NEVER heard of anyone being tossed out of attending anyone's funeral by state law. It could be that some family members would prefer that someone not attend but that would not be a State of Ohio issue.

C'mon.

Do your thing. Doesn't really effect me. I'm not going to go out of my way to campaign for gay rights or anything but if the marriage thing came up in an election that I was actually voting in I'd vote yes.

believer;409725 wrote:Deprived of attending funerals and hospital visitation?

I can go to just about any hospital and visit friend, family or even stranger without permission provided I do it within hospital visitation hours and rules. Funerals? I've NEVER heard of anyone being tossed out of attending anyone's funeral by state law. It could be that some family members would prefer that someone not attend but that would not be a State of Ohio issue.

C'mon.

Yeah, and some bigot family member would never disallow a gay persons partner/lover/whatever based on their hate of gays right?

^^^Marriages? No. Legal civil unions/partnerships? Sure.

I Wear Pants;409730 wrote:Yeah, and some bigot family member would never disallow a gay persons partner/lover/whatever based on their hate of gays right?

Did you really read my post? I acknowledged that. I'm saying the STATE does not disallow funeral attendance by gays. Get a grip. Geez

Do people realize that there are things called living wills (and wills that are probably better defined as something more lightly than 'death wills')?

If there is an occurence where someone is 'banned' from a funeral service for whatever reason - and I proffer this happens incredibly rare, one can (1) blame bigotry, or (2) blame the deceased for being an absolute freaking moron.

I don't plan on dying soon, but if I do I know where I'll be buried (in a private grave near Monticello) and where the service will be (UVA chapel) and as far as I'm concerned anyone can show up - why? Because that is what my will states!

I really don't understand how people that claim to be victimized can be so ignorant of easily obtainable legal sources for preventing being victimized. Why would any person want to have a funeral service in a church that discriminates against them? And why can't they be bothered to spend a couple hundred bucks to have a will?

As I indicated in my earlier post, despite the laws on the books, from what I've seen Ohio is a pretty gay friendly state for the most part. Columbus is the San Francisco of the midwest. They have a huge gay pride parade and there are gay men and women are everywhere you look. Cleveland is hosting the Gay Olympics. Don't give me this rhetoric that we line gays up on the walls and shoot therm here.

Manhattan Buckeye;409740 wrote:And why can't they be bothered to spend a couple hundred bucks to have a will?

Exactly

For some it's just easier to have the benevolent government take care of everything rather than taking the initiative to employ existing legal mechanisms to insure your personal matters are in order.