http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/24/elec04.prez.bush.transcript/index.html

First of all, I'd like to say that this speech already steps over the line, simply because of its complete lack of tolerance for a severely persecuted minority. These people are not monsters; they are humans whose sexual orientation is in all likelihood determined by genetics and other factors before birth. I feel that the 'compassionate conservatives' continually forget this when they pen scathing articles against them, and insist upon barring them from the rights which are allowed to all other citizens.

What was the insult to injury were Bush's examples...
"After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization. " [Emphasis my own]

Excuse me; of civilization? There are plenty of examples of non-1 woman/1 man arrangements! What about the berdache, the men who lived and acted as women, even in relationships, in various California Indian tribes before the Spanish arrived? What about the harems of the middle East? Both of those groups certainly fall in the realm of civilization. I think Bush needs an anthrolopology course before he starts defining civilization as only those groups who keep to one of many forms of relationships.

"The union of a man and woman is the most enduring human institution, honored and encouraged in all cultures and by every religious faith. Ages of experience have taught humanity that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society. "

Yes, and the berdache were also accepted and strongly encouraged! They were seen as *people*, not horrid aberrations - that's why. I'm not certain where the origin arose, but these few were even seen as particularly special and powerful, since they represented a fusion of male and female energies. It's only when the Spanish Catholics showed up and implanted the mission systems that the berdache were brutally put down, often with violence. Ergo, it's only the Catholic/Christian worldview that finds this totally unnerving and aberrant - NOT the entire US. Not by a long shot.

Thanks, Bush. You've finally convinced me not to vote for you. I cannot in good conscience tolerate someone in a high official office who believes that other people, who are kind, decent, and a damn sight more intelligent than him in many cases, should not be allowed to share in the rights and priveleges allowed to every other citizen of the US. This is patently ridiculous.

After reading this speech, I am almost ashamed to call myself an American citizen.