☘ Ireland did it. ☘
I'm 2 posts away from 87.
Where's my party.....
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@Urishima
I apologize for telling you to fuck off back in July. I misread "your fellow buggerers" comment and thought you were just a random homophobe hopping into the thread under the guise of having a discussion.
I don't know if you're aware but marriage makes it easier for people to stay together in a number of ways. It usually depends on the country, but if your union is recognized by the state, then you and your spouse are provided legal protections which aim to keep you together as a family -- for example, it is easier for people to immigrate if their spouse lives in that country, and it also facilitates inheritance and hospital visits. It depends on the country.
Symbolically, having our relationships recognized by society shields us from exclusion, and it means that the people around us are starting to recognize that homosexuality isn't immoral, inadequate or shameful.
The govt., ideally, shouldn't be regarded as an oppressor we must fight and keep out of our lives everyday; it should be the means through which the community organizes itself in order to help each and every citizen lead a better life. This is the purpose of any union -- the institution helping the individual and the individual contributing to the institution. 'All for one and one for all, united we stand divided we fall'. This is why participation is so important. It's not about keeping the state out of the way, it's about no longer living at the margins of the society you were raised in.