KEEP YOUR RELIGION OUT OF THEIR MARRIAGE

No matter how much thought I give it, I just can't understand why so many heterosexuals feel obligated to condemn homosexuality. What is it about lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered people that bothers some of these heterosexuals?

Is it the sex? Is that what it’s all about? Do you wonder what it is they do to pleasure themselves? If so, why? What does it matter what they do in the bedroom? How does that affect your life? Why it is gay people don't chastise your sexual behavior. You and I both know that you're kinky in your own way. When I see someone I work with I don't wonder how they have sex. If I see a gay couple, I don't think about it either. I don't go around wondering what your sex life is like.

I've been in enough adult book stores and toy shops to understand that heterosexuals have all sorts of fetishes and unusual ways of pleasuring themselves. Perhaps it's in the adult shops that sexual preference melds into a neutral zone where neither heterosexuals nor homosexuals question each other’s sexual proclivities.

The conflict right now between gay people and some straight people seems to be the ruckus over same sex marriage. What irritates me most about the discussion is that the church, which has no official jurisdiction at all when it comes to who marries who, gets into the middle of this fuss as if its opinion matters. It doesn’t. A Catholic Bishop has no more legal authority to say who can or can't get married than I do.  And I’m a minister.

Look. You don't have to be married in a church. If a church doesn't want gay people getting married under its gaudy cathedral ceiling then so be it. They'll get married in my apartment, or in a tent, or outside under a tree. You don't have to have permission from the church.  You just need a license from the state.

Places that cater to weddings, whether it's a banquet hall, a beach, or a church, are just venues that offer space in which to hold your ceremony. I married my second wife on the sugar sand of Fort Lauderdale's magnificent beach, just as the sun came up over the horizon. My dog, a Harlequin Akita, was the ring bearer. Everyone had bathing suits on and there wasn't a bishop in sight.

Remember that when you think about same sex marriage. It's an issue of law not religion. And yes, for a small fee, my apartment is available to any couple of any sexual preference who want to get married. The Church of Charles does not discriminate as some churches do.