Gay Nurses... help!

So if someone is gay but abstains from sex, then that person is no longer gay? You've obviously thought about this and I respectfully don't want to seem dismissive but I find your perception of what it is to be gay as narrow as you find the average person's understanding of what it means to be an alcoholic. I personally can't define either to my own satisfaction but I think you've made some leaps in your reasoning.

You're arguing semantics...

If you want to say that being gay is a completely relevant concept then fine, I'm down with that. It is what it is to who it is I suppose. You pitch your own tent and danged if I care what you want to call it. Personally, I think civil unions should apply to everyone and the government should just get out of the "marriage" business altogether but the folks who are the first to argue for the separation of church and state are the folks that argue that marriage (strictly a religious concept) is a civil right...

If I understand you correctly, you are positing that marriage is strictly a religious concept. So are you saying that being married by a priest or minister carries NO state sanctioned legal rights, responsibilities, or obligations? It is hard to accept the argument of separation of church and state or marriage being solely a religious concept when it is entrenched in the legal code of all 50 states. Personally, I like the way it is done in some countries where if you want to get married in a religious institution, great, but you still need to have it sanctioned by the state in a separate process to have it carry any legal weight. But I'm an 'equality for everyone' kind of guy.

Marriage was originally strictly a religious concept. You really can't argue otherwise.