With thanks to Waldo, this is the map of Europe with recognized gay marriage in green and civil unions (or their equivalent) in red:
In my post about the idiotic over-reaction to a New Jersey 10-year-old posing with his new squirrel rifle , Dana Garrett left me this response: One waits, apparently in vain, for you to post the annual rates of children who either shoot themselves or someone else with a gun. But then you Libertarians are notoriously ambivalent to and silent about data and facts and would rather talk abstract principles and fear monger (like the government will confiscate your guns). It doesn't require any degree of subtlety to see why you are data and fact adverse. The facts indicate we have a crisis with gun violence and accidents in the USA, and Libertarians offer nothing credible to address it. Lives, even the lives of children, get sacrificed to the fetishism of liberty. That's intellectual cowardice. OK, Dana, let's talk facts. According to the Children's Defense Fund , which is itself only querying the CDCP data base, fewer than 10 children/teens were killed per year in Delaw
Comments
Let's take it a step further; in most European Countries in order to marry ones "contract" is solely the purview of the state--a wedding in a church is merely a choice and individual makes. The clergy are not authorized to wed a couple for the State.
Our nation, which claims to have separation of church and state has given the clergy a role in officiating in the execution of a legal contract between a couple. If we want true separation of church and state; we would adopt something similar to the European system. At that point any objections to gay marriage by religious groups while mildly distressing would not be germane.
Hank