Pardon me if I don't answer the same question for the umpteenth time. I've said over and over that process is important. You want to fracture the country even further then impose same-sex marriage on the country from the bench. It's been 40 years since Roe Vs Wade and abortion now is a party line/litmus issue. Is that good?
I said earlier that I personally don't care if legalization comes through either the people or the courts-whichever one legalizes it, or if both support it, that's fine by me. I definitely think the abortion issue has been horribly mishandled by political parties over the years, but that's another topic unto itself. I just ultimately think, be it through the people or through the courts, gay marriage should be legalized because of the whole "civil rights" thing and because it is the just, fair, logical thing to do. There's absolutely no reason whatsoever a gay couple should be denied the chance to be married to each other and have their marriage recognized by law.
And see, right there, we have an issue: your use of the word "impose". Judges declaring gay couples have the right to get married if they so wish does not equate to "forcing" something on the country at large (which, again, is becoming more and more supported by said country at large, so it's not like they're going up against a huge resistance here), which I'll explain below:
If SSM becomes legal through the consent of the governed then so be it. But not at the loss of political self-determination, the loss of religious freedom or the loss of free speech. We aren't Canada.
Except there's no indication any of that's going to happen here. Judges saying gay couples can get married doesn't mean that they're trying to force churches to marry gay couples whether they want to or not-again, that whole "separation of church and state" thing. It also doesn't mean that they're saying anti-gay marriage people can't continue to oppose it (though, really, the anti-gay marriage side really should just give it up because opposing such a thing is stupid, pointless, and they're going to lose in the end, and there's a zillion things MUCH more worthy of their concern than that anyway). Again, I live in a state that legalized gay marriage. None of what you worry about has happened here. Not one thing.
And I don't know about Canada and how the laws have changed since gay marriage became legal there-Canadians here can answer that better than I can, but it wouldn't surprise me if the anti-gay marriage side exaggerated that stuff. Basically, so far from what I understand it sounds like their complaints boil down to, "We can't go on being openly prejudiced and discriminating anymore", to which I say, "Tough. Why would you want to be that way?"
Someone can continue to be against gay marriage all they want, and say so, but I'm not really holding any sympathy for their views not being taken seriously.
The intimidation, political bullying and rhetoric from politicians and SSM advocates related to recent events such as Chick-fil-A and the publishing of names and addresses of donors to causes opposed to SSM frankly scares the crap out of me. It's not only un-American but everything SSM supporters project on their opponents... it's borne of sheer hate.
Fight fire with fire, I guess, that's about all I can explain that with.
And yes, imagine that, we hate the fact that people are being denied equal rights for the most absurd of reasons. The two things aren't comparable. Not even close.
(I'd also point out that while we here disagreed vehmently with Chick-Fil-A's stance on the gay marriage thing, we also agreed that they're a private company and can do what they wish.)
You know what was not in my post?
Any suggestion that ours is a perfect country, a country with no failings or a country with no contradictory chapters in its history. That is read into it however because most here are only versed in the "areas where it could do better" and never learned, apparently, how to appreciate or defend "its good points."
No, you just went on a massively glowing post about how our country is so much better than everyone else's, and insinuated that those of us who disagreed even slightly were "indoctrinated" and "anti-American".
We read your post exactly as you intended it.
And we'll gladly mention the country's good points when necessary. Heck, I think the "Feel good stories" thread alone is full of examples of America and its people at its best, and I can list my own personal examples of where I think this country gets it right. Just that since we are in a thread where many here think this is an area that America could improve its stance in, it kind of stands to reason that we're going to be a bit critical of how this country is handling this issue. If we were in a thread talking about the good things our country is doing or has done, we would be stating that sort of thing there.
Plus, people like to complain about anything. I complain, you complain, everyone complains. That's life. It doesn't mean, however, that we "haven't learned how to appreciate or defend" our country's good moments.