You are officially not my friend Angrypoolman... Jeez.

OT: Yeah I like the idea put forth in the OP.

I've been thinking of a similar idea myself. Let the churches do what they do, but let the marriage license be the marriage itself. Once you've filled out the license, married in the eyes of the state, and the legal divorce procedure would be started by a nullification of that license

Also: Pre-nups should be the default situation, and you would have to sign an agreement to get out of the pre-nup ahead of time if you wanted it differently.

lol..

well somebody has to correct you on your crazy liberal antics. I would.. but I usually don't know what I am talking about and end up looking like I don't know shit. TheRealMafoo is much more convincing and actually knows what he is talking about, so I am glad he is here to put all these crazy liberal ideas to rest.

TheRealMafoo is intelligent, he can actually debate, the smart right wing on the this site (Mafoo, Slimebeast, Kasz) are the only sodding reason I come here any more. I like the debates, even if I'm wrong, but I am often right too. Just because I have a liberal point of view doesn't mean I'm wrong in what I believe, liberals and conservatives balance each other out, that's how the world works. You obviously have yet to figure that out.

I'm not actually right wing.  I'm more of a practicalist.  All things even I'm for comprhensive social programs to help the poor and such. 

You just need to find ways for them to work.  Putting in bad damage systems are worse then nothing because such systems can never be removed and can rarely be modified.

I think by right wing I mean you are a libertarian, as with the others I mentioned. I know it's not right wing, but economically it can hold a lot of right wing views... Bleh

You know what I mean.

Yeah, I wouldn't even consider myself a strict libretarian though.  Just more a libretarian based on the government I have.  Afterall, like I said I do believe in universal healthcare and in general providing the basics needed for everybody...

I just want a government i feel competant can accomplish it.

The tough part is getting a competant government who doesn't want to be authortiatrian. 

My last comment got fucked up by a friend lol. um, back to the original point, being gay myself, i would never expect a church to marry me in one of their ceremonies, especially since i was raised in a catholic church. the main thing that gay people want here is "equality" which really is given to them anyway (civil unions/domestic partnerships), they just want the title of it (marriage), which we all should just learn to accept is not going to happen because you can't force, and should never expect a church to compromise it's teaching. i accepted that a lonnnnng time ago. another huge point we want to get across is that we want to be able to jointly file a tax return through our state, local, and federal governments for deductions, benefits etc. which frankly, i agree with. if i pay my taxes, obey the laws, and am in a civil union with another dude, i expect to be able to have the same benefits as a straight couple.

While I would just argue that couples shouldn't get those rights.

I mean... why should two people get a tax break because they're married or civil unioned?

There are tons of economic benefits to being a couple if you both work... and if you don't the one who isn't working doesn't have to pay taxes.

I mean we're essentially giving people tax breaks for having LESS economic troubles.

I mean, think about it.  Say you get divorced by your husband or wife.

Now one of you had to find a new place.  You have to pay full price on the cable and other utlities you split... etc.

Life is harder.  Why do you have to pay more?

Is this not how it is already?  Even marriages in a Christian church are not recognized as a legal union until you obtain a marriage license from a judge (aka married by a Justice of the Peace).  Or do churches these days have the ability to grant marriage licenses now?