Many homosexuals are religious and do want to be part of the “Holy” institution. Furthermore a slowly growning number of churches do recognize that Gay folks can be just as married as straight folks.
Aldebaran, thanks very much for the answer, with which I pretty much agree in toto. I do tend to get a trifle judgmental when someone starts in throwing terminology around – I ought to have known better. My apologies.
And some churches – few yet but growing – believe that it’s our responsibility before Christ to bless in His name the love that brings two people together, without attempting to classify and categorize it as humans are wont to do.
I think I have a handle on the love that you and your wife shared – and while your sexuality and hers wouldn’t make that work as a marriage, it was quite real. And I sincerely hope that you find a husband whom you can love unreservedly – and that you’ll someday find a church that will honor that love and recognize it.
Fair point. I guess most of the gay folks I know are pretty anti-religious because they are kind of pissed off about how most religions see them, although I fully admit it’s not a representative sample. And I also see your point about many many churches liberalizing their stance towards homosexuality.
Hmmm… of the ones I’m personally acquainted with, IRL or via the Internet:
Christian gay men – 7
Gay men alienated from Christian churches but believing in God – 3
Gay men atheist but with respect and insight into Christian tradition – 2
Neopagan gay men – 4
Atheist presumably anti-Christian gay men – 3
Christian gay women – 5
Neopagan gay woman – 1
Atheist gay women – 2
Granted my sample is slightly skewed by the fact that I myself am openly a liberal, gay-affirming Christian, I think it’s anecdotally evidentiary that belief and gay sexuality are by no means incompossible.
Incidentally, Poly, which category did you have me in? My spiritual focus has fluctuated a few times since the last time I ever actually explicitly said anything detailed about my beliefs, so I just want to make sure I’m in the right box. 
I take your point; I never said they were incompatible, just to my mind kind of unlikely seeing as how so many religious leaders from various faiths openly and loudly decry homosexuality as a sin.
With effort, I’m avoiding the horrible double-entendre available for punning in that post.
I placed you in category #2, based on the last few Pizza Parlor posts you made that I read and the rare occasions you’ve mentioned your spirituality here, thinking you were probably there but might be in #1.
Apropos nothing generally, but fitting the context of this thread, it would not be irenic but would be just for gay people and their supporters to regard the marriages of people who deny the validity of gay marriage on Christian grounds as themselves invalid – giving them a piece of Matthew 7:1-2, which they claim to believe is God’s Word.
Well, that was over a year ago that I last posted over there. I’ve kind of swung back into agnosticism again. The only thing I’m sure of is that I’m not sure of anything. 
Through common use, the term “marriage” has taken on a broader meaning. But that doesn’t mean it should continue to do so.
I refer to religious “civil” unions as “marriage”. It gets to “own” the term because it was the “original” union.
non-religious “civil” unions are just civil unions.
Both should be protected and receive same federal tax benefits.
My apologies, I thought I was talking to Aldebaran, the Islamic scholar, while apparently I was addressing an alien creature from Aldebaran star system, completely new to the ways of planet Earth.
Talking to Aldebaran, the Islamic scholar, I’d say, “Why pretend you to know nothing about bigotry and religious hate, coming from culture where the calls to throw gays from tall buildings are sounded in the mosques all the time? Shouldn’t you rather inquire after how many Christian ministers find it in their hearts to embrace and support gay people?”
Talking to a creature from Aldebaran star system, I’d say, “Yes, what you observe is true, many Christians still hate gays and discriminate against them. In that, many Christians still have a lot in common with followers of other religions. Once you travel to Muslim lands, you will observe that the calls to throw gays from tall buildings are sounded in the mosques all the time…”
Feel better now?
Not really. All that was required for marriage for most of Western history was for two people to live together and declare that they were married. Using the Old Testament as an example, all that was required for marriage was the father of the girl to consent to the man asking and it was a done deal. No priest no religion. The Christian Church did not even have rites for marriage until about the ninth century, where were simply a blessing done after the marriage had been declared. It wasn’t a sacrament until 1493. Priests weren’t required for another 70 years. In Protestant England, Lord Hardwick’s Marriage Act of 1753 formalized and standardized marriage but form the most part poor people had common law marriages instead of more expensive, formal church weddings.
Here’s an interesting open letter from a Tufts University historian to Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney concering the history of same-sex marriage.