"IM-deeply-humble-O, the whole hang up about civil union (CU) vs. marriage (M) is the idea of "separate but equal", which I believe is a red herring. The only thing making it "separate" is terminology. In the eyes of the law, CU = M. In the eyes of some people in the gay community, CU < M because M is not available to them. They won't give up until the term Marriage loses any sense of gender specificity. That is not possible."

That's what I meant to say.

A friend who doesn't want to get involved PM'd me with the notion that the gay community is seeking "approval" vs mere "acceptance". Civil union is pretty much an acceptance of one's personal choice to be gay, I reckon. But this whole thing seems like a whole lot of unnecessary fuss about where a guy wants to stick his pecker, but whatever...

The best tax year we ever had was our first year in our new house. We weren't married , filed separately, with her taking the std deduction and me taking the interest on the loan, etc... to itemize. Got married the next year, lost the nice tax situation, she stopped trying so hard to please me ("Every night is unrealistic" ), and the rest is wedded bliss.

Seems like you ought to have to pay more taxes if you have more kids. Like user fees. More kids = using more services.