Societal Evolution

The Fabulous David E has an article in the LA Weekly concerning gay marriage.

...If gays and lesbians are legal, then a place must be assigned for them in the mainstream. And since marriage is the culture’s method for legitimizing sexual acts, then gays and lesbians must get married.

Ah, but there’s the rub. For if “they” are allowed access to something that “we” own the rights to, then “we” forfeit the exquisite pleasure of looking down on noses on “them.” And it’s for this reason that the hysteria over gays in the military, the Boy Scouts, the Catholic Church pedophile scandals and the recent uproar over the Episcopalians appointing an openly gay bishop is just so much background noise. The real story is that over the last decade an ever-increasing number of corporations is offering benefits for the same-sex partners of their employees. It’s a clear indicator of the fact that simply by being out, gays and lesbians have won the major battle for social legitimacy. Vermont has domestic partnership. Canada has full-bore same-sex marriage. No matter how much Karl Rove and his allies complain, we’re next.emphasis mine

He goes on to point out it's inevitability by showing historically how marriage, and social propiety have evolved and changed to reflect how the people who lived during those times attitudes have changed. Pretty standard argument for the most part, but at the end come to the money quote:

... the common fear that gays will develop relationships that are intense and satisfying even though they do not conform to the ideas of relationships held by others. It is the prospect that gays will create as yet unforeseen kinds of relationships that many people cannot tolerate.”

“Gay marriage”? Darling, we’re just getting started!

It's the challenge to the paradigm of what defines a relationship as marriage that has many literally in fear of destroying the very foundation of ther belief system. Think about it, never mind what two people do in the privacy of their home, (well, actually they do mind, but to appear even handed they say they don't) but that two people of the same sex can be recognized as "married" by the government, with all the legal rights and privliges, enforcible by law, which means they have to,(gasp), recognize it also, thereby taking away their 1st amendment right to discriminate against them in the name of religion. And since their beliefs are supposed take precedent over any actual laws, well you can see the paradox.