Have Tried To Be Helpful

MAKING SOME AMENDS: People were understandably frightened and confused and hurt by stories about my landlord/tenant matter and the criminal charges [see past blogs for further explanation]. Even if I felt mistakes had been made, I still had to live with them--until and unless corrections were made officially. I've made explanations to others where possible, but it hasn't always been possible. And after reading a detailed newspaper article about the plight of gay young people, especially, I thought I could show some support by working for gay marriage rights. I contacted my local politicians and received a letter back from the federal member of parliament in Canada. He expressed his conservative views and his desire for tolerance; and he also quoted some statistics about new laws and about standards in other countries. In other words, he sympathized with gays but didn't wish to support gay marriage. I needed some time to think about this man's comments. A few years later, the idea of a legal contract for gay marriage was raised in Canada. This was a legal contract which wasn't meant to be recognized as marriage or to be connected to churches, but which would give committed gay couples the same legal rights as married couples.--They would get tax benefits, division of property rights in the event of separation, and protection from spousal abuse, etc. I believe this kind of a privilege would allow gays to have more normal lives, as far as fitting into society goes; and it would also allow society to maintain their traditional views of marriage. Marriage, itself, isn't especially a standard of success or failure for anyone--not like it used to be. [People are single, married, or divorced and it's not a big deal.] The legal contracts would be a blend of "justice and mercy," in my opinion. Other people were campaigning for gay marriage in Canada and it was legalized about 5 years ago. At the present time, I haven't been working for any new changes here and I don't expect to--except that I was trying to get my conservative church to soften their views on this subject. I have to believe that the legal contract idea is in line with the Bible instruction to "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."--Doesn't it make sense? Some others and myself have also been expressing views on these topics for the benefit of the United States, where they're still having a lot of controversy about gay marriage. And maybe some controversy is good so that many views can be discussed. My own church is still resisting the idea of legal contracts and many people and churches still haven't heard of it! On the other hand, some people are pressuring me to go further; and I'm sorry, but the legal contracts are at my limits for gay marriage! I won't support full marriage but will support legal contracts. [Will write about some related issues; and the new criminal charges separately.]  NOTE ADDED ON JANUARY 18, 2014:  Have been writing further about gay marriage in my blogs and I'll say I'm now willing to support gay marriage, as long as there are religious exemptions in place.  People can see a post in Waterlily Story II for more info, if they wish.  Also, some other legal benefits which may affect gay couples are hospital privileges and end-of-life or health-care issues, which can be quite serious if a partner isn't recognized as a next-of-kin, etc.  The issues can be quite complicated!