Why are people so afraid of gay marriage?

I support a civil partnership system which would be marriage de facto. I have no personal objection to the word marriage but would prefer if some of the inequities faced by homosexuals were addressed rather than an 'equality agenda'.

The following situations could be considered by those who don't want gay marriage/ civil partnership.

Allbert and Ernest live together for some decades in a loving relationship. Ernest is now in his 70s and Albert is in his 60s. Albert is hospitalised. He slips into a coma. One of Albert's nieces gives an instruction that Ernest is not to be admitted during visiting times when she is present. Another of Albert's nieces contacts the hospital and objects to the other niece's instruction. When Ernest diffidently visits the hospital the nurse on duty says, not unkindly 'you've caused us alot of trouble'.

Albert will not recover from his coma. Albert's three nieces are deciding what to do (they all love Albert and two of them talk to Ernest). He is a bit relieved that the decision is not his to make but should it be.

Albert's pension is structured such that Ernest receives spousal benefit (Albert made the provision discreetly in the early 1980s) unfortunately inheritance tax is now due on the house they share and while Ernest can pay this it is a large chunk of the money that Albert carefully protected for him.

Mary and Anne are lovers. Anne is widowed Mary has never been married. They have lived together for 7 years. Anne has 2 children from her relationship with her late husband. The children are 9 and 11. Anne dies.
The children's grandmother wants custody of them, even though in her will Anne has said specifically that she would like Mary to continue to rear them.

itsonlywords wrote: »

Totally agree with you there. There is no hate but maybe the emotion I sometimes express and probably wrongly so,is sadness and pity for people with this condition. That unfortunately is how I think as I see homosexual behaviour as wrong, against God, but for an atheist, against laws of nature. Love between two people is not in itself wrong, and of course it cannot be but sexual relations between two persons of the same sex is clearly wrong and unnatural.
I am particularly upset about all this because I was the victim of abuse by a homosexual. A sexual opportunist who took advantage of a kid to satisfy his abnormal sexual desires.This leaves a mark. I do not ignore evidence and maybe I see evidence that you fail to see. Just a short point, there is a guy who is a long term victim of homosexual abuse by a priest, and appears on TV regularly, and I often wonder if he was not subjected to a sustained level of homosexual assault over many years, would he be normal now? Was he conditioned because of those assaults. My honest belief is that he was conditioned.
In my own case my brother was conditioned by sisters treating him like their little sister and encouraged participation in girly things and dressed him up etc. This was conditioning also. I bet if you ask all homosexuals you will find a large percentage who are conditioned and therein lies the danger that adoptive parents who are homosexual will condition their care to abnormality. We all know the expression "black cat.... black kitten.

You're talking about Colm O'Gorman- a man I've met and it would be hard pressed to find a nicer and more engaging person, and your armchair psychological profiling is so ridiculous it actually would make me laugh if you were not so offensive. He was abused all right, but by a predator, a priest whose sexual preferences may have been boys, the same way that some predators go for girls, it is not a homosexual thing, it is a deviant sexual predator thing. It didn't 'turn' Colm gay anymore than your sisters loving and playing with your brother 'turned' him gay.
Nothing pisses me off more when people like you try to conflate two seperate issues to further your agenda along, and your disgusting 'pity' of your poor brother only makes you out as a shallow twit with no more compassion than a shoe. Your brother is a gay man, you should love him and support him and keep your big beak out of his bedroom.
In a way it is actually preferable to see Christians like you, wishy washy 'hate the sin not the sinner' idiots make my skin crawl. I suppose deluded as you are at least you're open about it.

Jesus- as far as I know- died 2000 years ago, he's hardly relevant to the topic at hand. I couldn't care less what he had to say on any topic, no more than I care what Hercules had to say on any topic.