@BigPapaRedNeck: " Would you be changed". No, I would not. It won't have any affect on my life or posting to you. Personally I have no problem with adults having contracts, insurance, death death benefits, inheritance etc.. My only issue is the use of the word " marriage ". I think " Life Partners ", " Domestic Partners " are more appropriate...

So no worries..:-)

These people were changed, in a way, by a gay couple.....

"" Cynthia and Robert Gifford are caught
in a same-sex nightmare. They’ve been
forced to defend themselves against
claims that they’re lesbian-hating
homophobes.
“We respect and care for everyone!’’
Cynthia Gifford told me. “We had an
openly gay man working for us this past
season,’’ she said.
“We’ve had a woman who’s
transitioning to be a man. We don’t
discriminate against anyone.’’
But the government of the state of New
York sees things differently. The
Giffords, who own the bucolic Liberty
Ridge Farm in upstate New York, were
ordered to pay a total of $13,000 — a
$10,000 fine to the state and another
$1,500 to each member of a lesbian
couple to compensate them for “mental
anguish.’’ All because the Giffords,
devout Christians, refused to hold a
same-sex wedding ceremony on the
property on which they live, work and
have raised a daughter, 17, and a son,
21.
“This is scary,’’ Cynthia Gifford said.
“It’s scary for all Americans.” Fifteen
years ago, Cynthia, 54, and Robert
Gifford, 55, opened to the public their
farm in upstate Schaghticoke, near
Albany, where they’ve lived for 25
years. They host an annual, family-
friendly fall festival, which ends
Tuesday, offering such countrified fare
as a corn maze and pig-racing shows.
In summer, wedding ceremonies and
receptions also are held on the farm.
But once already-booked nuptials take
place, the Giffords will no longer
schedule new ceremonies. Only
receptions — including same-sex ones —
will go on. What happened?
Cynthia Gifford took a life-changing
two- to three-minute phone call in 2012
from a woman she’d never met, Melisa
Erwin, who was looking for a place to
hold her wedding. A wedding — to
another woman.
Gifford said she told her, politely, that
she would not book a same-sex wedding
ceremony at the farm.
She didn’t know it at the time, but the
woman’s then-fianceé, Jennifer
McCarthy, recorded the conversation.
The pair then filed a formal complaint
with the state Division of Human
Rights. And this past August, an
administrative law judge from The
Bronx, Migdalia Pares, decreed that the
farm was a “public accommodation’’
and ordered the penalties, after ruling
that the Giffords had violated state law
by discriminating against the two
women.
Incredible. The women, now both 31,
currently live in upstate New York.
They found another venue at which to
get married, and each woman now uses
the surname McCarthy. They declined
my request for an interview.
“They were devastated when they heard
that Liberty Ridge Farm would not take
their business because of who they are,’’
the ladies’ lawyer, Mariko Hirose of the
New York Civil Liberties Union, told
me.""
Link.

Assigning civil rights to what amounts to nothing more than a sexual tendency is a slippery slope IMO.

So who should I sue for mental anguish? I am all screwed up in the head about my ability to continue to officiate weddings. I am afraid I may be destroyed because of MY religious beliefs......seriously...I am in major anguish. What recourse have I?

Dont NOT officiate a same sex ceremony and youll be fine......damn YOUR religious convictions though....we cant have your type running around in the new 'Mericuh.

I wld even officiate in a civil ceremony....but wld refuse if they wanted God mentioned in any way...and yes in this Mericuh I wld probably be destroyed...it isn't right. We are FOUNDED on that liberty. It is MINE not just theirs! Pisses me the fuk off!

Well, I don't believe homosexuality is a sin, so I could care less. Marry another consenting adult...sure why not.


A private business SHOULD have the right to turn away folks.


A church...mmm...if it's against the fundamental beliefs of that church...sorry, don't try to have your services there . There are congregations and churches that support homosexuality. Just go there. Geeze.

@SweetNothings: I am very much pro LGBT. I am not sure we should allow private business to discriminate. Seems awfully similar to the racial discrimination against blacked in the earlier part of the 1900s. As far as churches go, I think the freedom of religion should prevent religious institutions from being forced to officiate or host events contrary to their faith. And that's coming from a boy that won't stop for in a church! LOL

The only reason that I say private businesses should be able to turn away folks based on homosexuality is because, there is still an argument that people aren't born gay. You are born with an ethnicity though.
I can see the correlation between this and the Black Civil Rights Movement, but that's my one hang-up. And there are still private wedding venues that would probably turn away interracial couples, or couples who hadn't done premarital counseling, etc...I say, don't just pick a venue to prove the point that they're discriminating. I could argue both sides of this, though.

How abt it goes against the land owners religious beliefs? Heck, lets just put it out there....their CHRISTIAN beliefs.

Im very much pro all Americans.... and you left out a whole lot of acronyms letters there......

L : Lesbian. Women attracted to
women.
G : Gay. Men attracted to men.
B : Bisexual. People attracted to both
sexes.
T : Transgender. People who are the
opposite sex internally than the body
they are born into, whether male to
female (MTF) or female to male
(FTM).
Q : Qu.eer. People who don’t want to
label themselves by their sex acts
but do want to claim being different,
eccentric, and fabulous. Reclaimed
from a hate term, ***** can still be
highly offensive, depending on usage.
Q : Questioning. People still working
out who they are attracted to.
I: Intersex. People born into bodies
that are not clearly, or only, male or
female. This includes people with
ambiguous genitalia, or bits of both
male and female plumbing, or
A : Asexual. People who just aren’t
that into sex with anybody.
A : Allies. Straight people who
support the XXXX community.
P : Pansexual. People attracted to
others by individual personality, not
gender.
In Canada they make it LGBTTIQQ2SA by
adding respect for a non-European
category:
2S : Two Spirit. The traditional way to
identify gender variant people in First
People communities. Many two
spirits served as the community’s
visionaries and healers.

Theyll be after you if you leave out anyone

@WalkSoftly: Thanks for reminding me. I can't ever remember all of that!