Gay men and women should have the same rights

As usual, Mr. Gore, you are right again. People should not be judged or penalitized because of their sexual orientation anymore than for the color of their skin.

i couldnt agree more. seems to me telling someone they cannot marry because of
sexual orientation reeks of the same sort of policies which disallow anyone of
unpure blood to marry into the master race. i.e. we are not nazi germany when will we
stop acting like it?
another link about same sex marriage at current.
http://current.com/items/86559801_for_all_of_you_who_have_forgotten_the_basic_pr...
post script c'mon folks wake up impeach!!! the constitution demands it. there is no
lame duck. that is an excuse for complacency. apathy kills your mind!

Dear Al,

Let me preface this comment by saying that you were my first choice for President this year, however much you didn't seem to want to run. ;-)

Barack Obama said the following at the very pulpit that Martin Luther King preached at, in Ebenezer Baptist Christ in Atlanta, Georgia, surrounded by some of this country?s most prominent black religious leaders.

<i>?If we are honest with ourselves, we?ll acknowledge that our own community has not always been honest to King?s vision of a beloved community. If we?re honest with ourselves, we?ll have to admit that we?ve scorned our gay brothers and sisters, instead of embracing them.?</i>

His statement wasn't only extremely supportive of gays and lesbians in America, but was also transformative... a rebuke to some, and a call to accept homosexuals in the black community, rather than shun and stigmatize them, pushing them towards closeted, unsafe sexual behavior.

Al, you must know that Barack Obama has the cards stacked pretty heavilly against him in this race. The odds aren't on his side. I know you want to stay above politics in order to be effective fighting for our environment and our future... but as for myself, I want hope for the future. A hope for true equality, hope for our country.

Al, I understand that you didn't want to run for President, but please, please consider endorsing Barack Obama for president... as soon as possible... while it can do some good.

Consider using your endorsement as leverage in order to effect and improve upon Barack Obama's environmental and energy policies, and to see to it that we have a hope at slowing and reversing the risks of global warming as soon as possible, so that we can avoid the worst ravages of global warming.

While Barack Obama can unify this country with hope, he can use guidance and assistance to help channel that hope into action. Please, Al... consider being that guidance and that hope.

I want to live my life with hope for peace and equality... I, like most Americans, have spent too long with only broken promises. And, when I die one day, I want to know that there will still be hope for the world and for the future after I am gone. That's why I ask you... please... it was tragic to see a good man like you lose your big chance at the White House. Please don't let another good man lose his big chance. Help him, and help him help us.

My thanks,
Mark Kraft

Thank you for having the courage to advocate equal rights for the gay community. You are absolutely right on all points. I don't know why people want to deprive others of simple human rights.

Love should be celebrated not penalized. I couldn't agree with you more, Mr. Gore, unfortunately that isn't the world we live in, but there is always hope. And to markkraft: if Obama cares so much for the gay community then he shouldn't be accepting endorsements from those who are anti-gay.

Homophobia is discrimination in my eyes. I agree with Mr Gore, why on earth do people feel so threatened by homosexuality? I'm a straight lad and am very happy in my relationship. My girlfriend makes me a better person and what else do we have in life if we're not allowed the one true human feeling of "Love." Now why should homosexuals be judged and told that in the eyes of some that they are not be allowed to have the same? Who gives a @u#k if other folk don't live the same way as you do. Learn to love all and maybe you'll grow as a human being.

Thank you, Mister Gore.

You have some good ideas Mr. Gore, and I must say that I more or less agree with what you have to say. The only thing I would point out would be your choice of words pertaining to homosexual "marriage" rather than homosexual "union".

I would like to point out that on a personal level I really could not care less if we call it marriage or union. What is important are the meanings behind the word and the social and legal status that the word implies. However, marriage is a religious word and it is not possible to separate the word marriage from it's religious background. I think that the point I am trying to make is that by using terms like "civil union" rather than "marriage" you verbally remove religion from the equation. In removing religion from the equation, you can negate many of the arguments based upon religion and keep the argument strictly about politics and/or legal issues.

Anyhow, I apologize if I have ranted or pointed out something that was inherently obvious. I realize that I am talking about pretty much boils down to semantics, but I think that being precise about word choice is very important in anything that can be argued.

There you go not allowing them full civil rights. That's wrong.

This is interesting in light of the fact that in the past, Mr. Gore has not been a supporter of gay marriage per se.

And this is why Al Gore has been my hero for a very long time...

Why do we always have to have someone to discriminate against?

But I second markkraft's opinion here for the most part, though there's the question of how advantageous such an endorsement would be if Obama wishes to separate himself from the old guard? Does Kerry (who I have no intention of comparing with Gore) help Obama? Can you be endorsed by the very establishment you are essentially distancing yourself from?

This is of course more fitting in a different conversation than here.

Well stated. Thank you for sharing your perspectives here.

By the way, I'm glad to see you active in social media, and not just a "board" member at Current.

Totally agree with you Mr. Gore. No one should stick their nose into other people bedrooms to dictate how or with whom they should have sex or follow in a passionate relationship. If we only keep ourselves supporting everyone's sexual education so everyone can be health (Public, Religion and Government) will do just fine on this one.

No we shouldn't.

Let's not pretend that we are all the same. We are not.
Homosexuals are homosexuals and heterosexuals are heterosexuals. It's not an insignificant difference.
It's not like a different skin color.
Marriage was invented for heterosexuals and biology has more to do with that than anything else.

What happened to you, man? I want the Al Gore of the 80s back. No need for this left-wing garbage.

"Stardate"-You remind me of the "Nazi" era. People without "compassion" or "tolerance" for others. Is not because a person is different than I (proved that this person is not a criminal) that I should discriminate against them in any way. That includes their sexual orientation. Grow up, would you?

@stopnoise

""Stardate"-You remind me of the "Nazi" era. People without "compassion" or "tolerance" for others."

Compassion and tolerance have nothing to do with this. Biology has.
It's not discrimination. That would imply that homosexuals are deprived of something that is their God given right. Like freedom of movement, for example.
Marriage is not in that category. It was invented to protect humans in their early years when they are too weak and too unintelligent to do that on their own. (Other species don't have such problems)
Two men or two women just can't provide such protection due to the differences between the male and female brains.

I don't care about anyone's sexual orientation per se.
Sex is just entertainment for homosexuals and I have better things to do than spending my time worrying about how X or Y are having fun.
But marriage is much more than just entertainment and that's what homosexuals kicking and screaming for "equal rights" seem to forget.

For that matter marriage is not a right. It's a practicality. It existed long before the word "right" had any meaning.

I find hard to conceptualize here how a marriage between two men or two women with children can threat the marriage between a man and a women.

There is no relationship between these two.

The fact here is that the resulted of this union would give by Law the same monetary benefits to individuals of different sexual orientation and is that what you do not want right?

So what is the issue here?
- Financial benefits
- Equal rights before the Law
- Conceptuality of Traditional Marriage
- Religious dogma

-What really are you so desperate defending there?

Kudos to Mr. Gore for standing up on this! How different many of our lives would have been if he had been President....

StarDate-

Actually, marriage was created as a way to further subjugate women and reinforce the idea that they are a man's "property". I always find it interesting that so many conservative-types always romanticize marriage as some long established "society saving" institution. You can look back through history and see cases of women being sold into marriage for political gain or monetary gain. It is still that way in many cultures where arranged marriages and such occur.

It has since become (at least in our country) something a bit different, but that only goes to show how our cultures idea of "marriage" is constantly evolving and changing. Why can't we keep moving forward and extend our very new definition of marriage (marriage=love and stability, a rather 20th century idea) to the gay community?

You have the right idea, waymonhudson. "Marriage" is by no means an immutable idea, as the type of marriage as we know it has existed for about a hundred years, and for much of the world, there is no freedom to "marry" ? it is a pact between families, often made for economic advantages.

If you want to talk about the "practicality" of it, then polygamy is a mostly "practical" idea that served some of the most "successful" civilizations in human history, if you want to look at it that way.

And biology and sexuality are a bit more complicated than that, stardate. Read a book. Thanks.

Thanks for both of you "waymonhudson" and "khsing" for clearing up some parts of this issue. I sure had the thoughts that "stardate" was a little bit "confused" about this issue and end up to mix up things like "practicality" and "biology." That is the reason I am laying out some real issues that is related to "Marriage."

Really,

-What is the "beef" here that the "so called straight" individuals feel threated or offended?
-Is that because you do not want to share the financial benefits with "gay couples?"

The bottom line here is that "Gays" are humans just like the rest of us and many are not just doing "for the sex or entertainment" but for the commitment and responsibility to receive the same financial support to raise their children.

Gore:

I am unable to follow your video since it is not captioned. I am deaf, and I would greatly appreciate if you or your staff can add captions or subtitles to your videos. Remember there are over 30 million Americans with varying degrees of hearing losses, and most of them rely on captioning. The internet video revolution is leaving us out.

"Slinkerwink" here is Mr. Gore script from this movie.

I think is wrong for the Government to discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation. I think people, gay, man and women owe to have the same rights as heterosexuals man and women to make contracts, to have hospital visiting rights, to joint together in marriage and I do not understand why it is considerate by some people to be a threat to a heterosexual marriage. Shouldn't we be promoting some kind of faithfulness and loyalty to ones partners regardless of their sexual orientation because if we do not do that, then to that extend you are promoting "promiscuity" and promoting all the problems that can be resolved from "promiscuity" and the loyalty and love that two people feel for one another when they fall in love owe to be celebrated and encourage and that shouldn't be prevented from any form of discrimination in the Law.