I have avoided writing about this one because I am afraid I am not equipped to express myself properly and completely.  I love people.  I love people loving other people.  I think the impact of love on our world is the only saving grace.  I don’t think there is anything wrong with the love of two consenting adults and I don’t give a rat’s fanny if they happen to be of the same sex.  The power of love is a critical and unique force in the world and there is hardly a time when more of it could be considered a bad thing.  At the risk of sounding trite, I do have gay friends.  Or, at least, I know gay people to whom I offer my friendship.  (I would not want to speak for them.)  I hope they find in their partners that which completes them and that which will offer solace and succor for the entirety of their lives.  I have no doubt that whatever the genesis of the feelings, nature or nurture, the feelings are as real as the love I feel for my wife of nearly 27 years.  I would hope that every person capable of love gets to know a lifelong relationship with a person they love and that loves them back.  Love is a good thing.  It is the best thing.  It is not a reason to make laws.  More to the point love has no bearing on law.  And, legislating to accommodate love is, not only, not in the best interests of society it runs contrary to the general welfare.  Love and marriage are not the same things.  They have never been and never will be.  The legal standing of marriage in societies for as long as man has accepted laws from God and made his own has been because it is in the best interest of the state to have stable and long-lasting relationships between man and woman.  Most obviously it is in the interest of the state to have a man and a woman raise children together.  It is also in the best interests of society to have couples set up households with generational holdings alleviating the state from the need to fully support the elderly who have no children to rely upon and no generational savings to utilize.  It is in the best interest of the state to have familial relationships across the country to provide obligations to aid that family in times of crisis.  It is in the best interest of the state to have marriages between a man and a woman to codify issues of public health and personal safety.  Point being there are more than a few reasons why the state might have its nose in the business of its citizens when it comes to marriage, but seeing to it that any person who loves another person can marry them is not one of them.  As long as this debate has been around there have been those that are reviled because they attempt to make the point that if you allow homosexual marriage you will soon have petitions to allow polygamy and an end to age restrictions and from folks who want to change the meaning of animal husbandry. And, as absurd to some as that may sound it s true.  But, it has little to do with homosexuals being allowed to marry.  It has everything to do to changing the reason to allow people to marry from being in the best interests of society to whether or not the two or three or nine people involved love each other.  It is the changing of the legal standard that always paves the way for the unintended consequences.  We allowed the legislatures and judicial activists to allow no fault divorce and the collapse of the nuclear family commenced forthwith.  Easy divorces made it easy to bail out of a marriage and dump your family because the price of finding an escape from your problems was so low.  Throw away marriages made the concept of premarital sexual relations just a matter of paperwork and the rise in children with no available fathers was a predictable and certain outcome.  Changing the standard of divorce from “he/she broke the marriage contract” to “irreconcilable differences” changes the nature of the game.  Changing the definition of marriage to a legal arrangement open to any persons who love each other robs the rest of us by cheapening the importance of marriage.  If you love each other find a church or ballroom and throw a party and declare your love everlasting in public and for all to see.  But love is not an underpinning of contracts and should not be.   Gay marriage has no multigenerational impact for the good of society and does not meet the legal standards that are the true underpinnings of state sanctioned marriage.  I wish it did.