<p>I have lived in Texas since I was five, and I never really minded it much. I mean, summer is disgustingly hot and everyone thinks we ride horses to school and sometimes we put whiskey in pie. But it's a nice place to live (especially Austin), and it's my home. I'm even staying in state and starting in Rice University in the fall.</p>
<p>Then Texas, which I had finally accepted, despite all of our weird pride and being the butt of many a well-deserved joke, has to go and do something like this: the Texas Republican Party wants to ban not only gay marriage, but gay sex, and while they're at it oral sex too. And just random people making it clear when I am just at work and only really want to have a conversation about our specials that they are conservative Christians and will not stand for this sort of thing (even though I didn't mention my being gay; they just brought it up just in case). This sort of thing being who I am and my hope that someday I will find a woman I love and spend the rest of my life with her.</p>
<p>So back to my point, which is: thanks, Texas. Thanks for making the world seem like a much worse place.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure the police would just feel really awkward about it if that were a law. Would people call them, as if to report a crime in progress, but instead just say “I think my neighbors are having sex”?</p>
<p>Whether or not what they are “banning” (convenient misnomer) is moral, the “ban” itself is immoral. And doesn’t Texas pride usually include appreciation for the liberty enjoyed by citizens of the state? :-/</p>
<p>Texas, with the exception of Austin, is ultraconservative. That’s all there is to it. Laws will reflect the sentiments of the general populace and state government, which is for the most part conservative, religious Republicans who were raised in a time where homosexuality was heavily frowned upon. Our generation is much more tolerant than the ones preceding it, and I wouldn’t expect this ban on homosexuality to last too long. It’s wrong, yes, but not unexpected.</p>
<p>^^ Pretty much exactly what I was going to say. I have such little tolerance for people who want to ban gay marriage. For me, it’s not about gay marriage, it’s about government. Government cannot either allow or disallow churches to marry gays. If a church doesn’t want to marry gays, that’s their right. If a church does want to marry gays, that’s also their right. Regardless of whether the couple was married in a church, the government has to issue them a marriage license and all the benefits of a license. They just can’t be discriminated against in that way.</p>
Precisely, nor is it the government’s place to meddle in love with this “license.” The last thing the world needs is for what little beauty remains to be troubled by the ugliness of authoritarian institutions.</p>
<p>All “normal” heterosexual couples are “troubled by the ugliness of authoritarian institutions” if that’s what you call a marriage license. It’s a requirement (although that’s another issue, if that’s where you’re going).</p>
<p>Well I don’t think that’s what we were discussing. My point was that government should treat homosexuals exactly the same as heterosexuals, and any difference is illegal.</p>
<p>Yes we pay no taxes here at all. No income tax, no sales tax; we don’t even pay into social security or medicare. It’s because we want to make government so small that it will fit in my bedroom.</p>