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I appreciate that, Mark. But I do have to point out that you ignored / chose not to quote the part of my post that gave my example of one way Americans do not respect the opinions of others.

I find that sort of interesting.

I did not want this thread to turn into a gay marriage debate, that's all. If we can keep it on-topic (Americans respecting the opinions of others), we can continue. Here is your quote:

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I don't see people respecting the opinion of gay couples who want to marry, do you? Sure, there are some, and in a large country like the US, "some" adds up to quite a few people. But still, are we respecting that opinion?


The argument of Americans who are against "gay marriage" is simply one of language. They believe that the term "marriage" is reserved for a male-female relationship. As much as they respect the right of people to have same-sex unions, they would like to have their interpretation of the word "marriage" honored also. The majority of Americans are not against same-sex unions. They are not against people who are gay. They are against someone calling a union between two people of the same sex "marriage".

Americans who wish to call a same-sex union "marriage" are asking our government to make this law. Americans who wish to retain the word "marriage" for a man and a woman are also asking the same thing. Eventually our country will have to decide one way or another, but this does not mean that either party cannot understand (and respect the opinion of) the other side's viewpoint. You could call it a polite disagreement. When this happens in America, we all orderly file to the voting booths and let our opinion be heard.

Take your average American gay couple, pair them with your average American straight couple, and send them out to dinner to have a discussion. If they disagree on this issue, most of the time this would result in both couples saying: "They were pleasant, I just did not agree with their viewpoints". I say rarely would you have a fistfight or loud argument. This is the type of "respect my opinion" that I am talking about.
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Mark Cushman