obtain joint health, home and auto insurance policies; enter joint rental agreements ;

1. "The ACLU supports legal recognition of lesbian and gay relationships, including the right to marry. Such recognition is imperative for the complete legal equality of lesbian and gay individuals." ACLU Policy No. 264.

2. The ACLU has endorsed the "marriage resolution" developed by a coalition of groups working for the right of lesbians and gay men to marry. It states: • Because marriage is a basic human right and an individual personal choice, RESOLVED, the State should not interfere with same-gender couples who choose to marry and share fully and equally in the rights, responsibilities, and commitment of civil marriage. 

3. "Marriage is a basic human right. You cannot tell people they cannot fall in love. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used to say when people talked about interracial marriage, and I quote, "Races do not fall in love and get married. Individuals fall in love and get married." • (Testimony of Rep. John Lewis of Georgia before Congress on the Defense of Marriage Act, 7/1/96)

4. "It will be up to each church to determine whether or not to conduct these marriages. This is a very different question than whether or not there are civil or State sponsored same-gender marriages. Regardless of the outcome of the court case, no church or clergy will be forced to perform or to recognize same-gender marriages." • (Clergy Coalition and the Coalition for Equality and Diversity, Christianity and Same-Gender Marriage, 8/96)

6. Marriage is not premised on procreation. (1965 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Griswold v. Connecticut). Besides, many married couples do not or cannot have children, and many lesbian and gay couples do have and raise children. • -Partners Task Force for Gay & Lesbian Couples

7. “No one uses the term “straight marriage.” In reality, we do not know the sexual orientation of married partners. The same is true for members of same-sex couples. The marriage discrimination faced by same-sex couples is discrimination based on their sex, not on their orientation. Lesbian or gay people can get legally married — as long as they marry an opposite-sex partner. The fight is for the same access to legal marriage as all other citizen have. To call it “gay marriage” suggests a different status.” • -Partners Task Force for Gay & Lesbian Couples

8. Denying lesbians and gay men the right to marry denies them simple, basic dignity and has serious practical costs as well. Among the practical consequences unique to marriage are the rights to: • visit a partner or a partner's child in a hospital;  • inherit from your partner if she or he doesn't have a valid will;...

9. obtain joint health, home and auto insurance policies;   • enter joint rental agreements;   • make medical decisions on a partner's behalf in event of illness;   • take bereavement or sick leave to care for a partner or a partner's child;   • choose a final resting place for a deceased partner;   • obtain wrongful death benefits for a surviving partner and children;   • get an equitable division of property in a divorce;...

10. have joint child custody, visitation, adoption and foster care;   • determine child custody and support in a divorce;   • have a spouse covered under Social Security and Medicare;   • file joint tax returns;   • obtain veterans' discounts on medical care, education and home loans;   • apply for immigration and residency for partners from other countries; and   • obtain domestic violence protective orders.

11. Rupaul as a woman.

12. Rupaul as a man.

13. Same sex partners have jointly adopted a child in 23 states. Indiana is one of them.

14. Florida is the only state that bans single gay and lesbian people from adopting, but they can be foster parents.

15. Mississippi prohibits same sex couples from adoption and 2nd parent adoption.

16. Utah forbids adoption by any unmarried cohabitating couple, thus discriminating against homosexuals who cannot legally marry.

17. -"I don't think America knows what a gay parent looks like.  I am the gay parent.  America has watched me parent my children on TV for six years."                                              -Rosie O'Donnell

18. Between 6 and 14 million children in the US are estimated to live with at least one gay parent.

19. An average of 120,000 American children were adopted annually throughout the 90's.

20. "The more people that love a child, the better."                                 -Sue Aquila (openly gay mother in Bloomington-               1st gay adoption in Indiana)

21. "I was not interested in publicity....I wanted to have a family without being part of the cause."              -Sue Aquila

22. -"What they fail to recognize is that children in homosexual households grow up without experiencing first hand three of the most important relationships required for social development- husband/wife, mother/father, and male/female                         -Ken Connor (former Family Research Council President)

23. "A child needs a mother and a father."-Ken Connor (former Family Research Council President)

24. One research study showed that children of lesbian parents are more likely to consider the possibility of a same sex relationship than to actually do so.

26. 37% of all men experience a sexual orgasm as a result of homosexual activity-Alfred Kinsey

27. Blacks have “fought too hard and too long against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation." • - U.S. Rep. John Lewis-

28. Blacks are more likely than the population as a whole to oppose gay marriage.

29. Many blacks take offense to comparing the struggles of homosexuals to the 200-plus years of discrimination blacks have suffered in the United States.

30. 53-55% of Americans object to legal marriage for homosexuals. 63-64% of blacks object to legal marriage for homosexuals.

31. Heaven: the word for Canada when the Negro sang of the hope that his escape on the Underground Railroad would carry him there," the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.Heaven: Canada again for Lance W. Bateman and William E. Woods, two American men who were married here recently.

32. "I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” - Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King Jr.-

33. The percentage of married households has plummeted 30% since 1950. • -Pew Research Center

34. Women favor homosexual marriage 2 to 1 over men.

35. Republican Party platform: “Marriage is not a lifestyle choice, but a public commodity critical for the survival of the human race.” (coined by William Doherty)

36. “There’s no reason for Santorum to apologize or back. What he said was almost word for word what Justice Byron White said in his Supreme Court opinion in the previous gay rights case a number of years ago.” - Phyllis Schlafly, conservative activist.

37. Bowers v Hardwick (1986) set the precedent for hundred year old anti-sodomy laws to be upheld, even when couples are engaging in such activity consensually, in closed quarters.

38. Lawrence v. Texas (2003) The court case that finally struck down anti-sodomy laws in Texas and thirteen other states that prevented lesbian andgay couples from having Private sexual relationships

39. 34 states have already adopted “defense of marriage” laws, defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.