Ian McKellan, quoting Thomas Jefferson on Bill Maher's show

saw a rerun tonight of the Feb 27 episode of Real Time With Bill Maher - Ian McKellan was on and discussion of gay marriage was a major topic...McKellan mentioned a quote from Thomas Jefferson that i think bears repeating (even though, as Maher pointed out, Jefferson was bangin' his slaves)...

"Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as manners and opinions change, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."

now, i've heard it mentioned in several places about all the benefits that married people have because of marriage - literally THOUSANDS of benefits. perhaps it's because i've never been married myself, but i can't see that - thousands?? what are these benefits? i know that being able to add a spouse to your insurance and appoint them as the person to decide whether to end your life support are such benefits, but what else?

regardless of what these benefits are, and the fact that i don't know what they are, i do know one thing: married people don't deserve them. seems to me that the government is giving preferential treatment to people that get married, and i don't think that's right - marriage is a religious/spiritual union, and should be treated as such - it has no place in our government.

another topic frequently discussed: the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution - shouldn't that trump any sort of amendment banning gay marriage? or shouldn't it just mean that marriage shouldn't have anything to do with the Constitution, and if a married person has the right to put their spouse in charge of medical decisions, then an unmarried person should have the same right to name a person in a similar situation?

i guess the more that i think about it, the more i find myself annoyed with the whole gay marriage thing - it seems as though we're selling ourselves short in asking for the same rights as heterosexual married couples. instead of saying "hey, i'm gay and my girlfriend and i want to get married so we have the same rights as you hetero married people" shouldn't we be saying "everybody deserves the same rights and treatments by the government, regardless of their marital status"?

*shrug* it sucks that this is brought up in an election year to divide the country and try to make us forget that Dubya has totally fucked up this country in so many ways. let's discuss it when everything isn't so fucked up and people can be a bit more rational and level-headed.