I don't see this as a time to congratulate New York or to bash it. I personally don't care about gay marriage one way or another but I don't see why people keep using comments like "this is equality" or a promotion of "gay rights" since marriage is not a right. I don't also understand why people use terms like "progress" when talking about things like gay marriage.

I'm not implying that I'm against the New York making this decision since, as stated, I don't care either way. It's doesn't mean anything and shouldn't mean anything because marriage isn't a right and it's not going to balance the federal budget or undo high unemployment or underemployment.

I agree that economy should be the first thing to fix. But I think it's impossible to do in U.S. with Obama as president.

Ron Paul anyone? :P

Figured there would be one of those, even if this fine community -_-

On topic: Great news, go NYC :D

In some cases, yes.

I'm sorry that you're concerned about people losing their jobs because their views are unacceptable in modern society. I'm sure racists felt the same way when they were ostracised. Like I said, not all opinions deserve tolerance. Some of them are simply bigoted and wrong.

Sorry but you're wrong. There are two options:
1) there is freedom of speech
2) there is NO freedom of speech

You can't forbid anyone to protest in any way, because it violates this freedom.

The only limit, but it's not in fact a limitation of freedom of speech is incitement to comit a crime. Thousands of people shouting "kill XXX" may be dangerous.

But not people with transparents "Black people are not equal". It's their right to think so, and to say it loud.

also, its right of the users to low rate any post that they think do not deserve tolerance

For me, these statements deserve same respect:

1) Black people are equal
2) Black people are not equal
3) People who think black people are not equal are stupid
4) People who think black people are equal are stupid.

Yes, please!

I can't argue with that, I think there's a lot of sense in it.

Around here we have civil unions for straight couples that are over a certain age. Since the civil unions that we have aren't recognized by the federal government anyways, it allows people collection social security to get functionally married without giving up their social security income. It doesn't come with any federal recognition, but it does carry with it all the rights that would be available under state law to a married couple.

It was originally a way to make it easier to get all the rights under state law for same sex couples, but it does have advantages and I'd like to see it extended to any pair of consenting adults that want it.
When you do that sort of thing on the job, you have to adhere to the law. There's tons of things that I can say at home or on my personal time which would get me fired at work. I don't see anything wrong with that, provided there's adequate protection for honest misunderstandings.

As for intolerance, I see no reason why I should be tolerant of people who behave like bigoted morons. There is no integrity in tolerating bigotry.

As a Texas resident (begrudgingly), I am amused at your comment. Austin, maybe, but Travis County is a mixed bag. And the rest of Texas...I think it will take a long while.

Not really seeing any freedom of speech issue here. Folks like Paradoks are free to say whatever bigoted things they want, and other people are free to say how stupid such statements are, or simply voice their disapproval through downrating of posts. There's freedom of speech for everyone!

People are free to make whatever kind of asinine comments they want, but that doesn't mean that anyone is obligated to be accepting of such comments.

No they aren't. In China people are not free to make many comments that a lot of them would like to. In the UK if I were inciting extremism then I would be arrested. Why have you assumed the forum runs on American values?

I was speaking in much more general terms than just what applies to these forums. Naturally various countries have their own restrictions on free speech, and when dealing with privately run forums the folks running the forum can remove any content they don't like on a whim. I thought that was pretty much a given and didn't need to be explicitly laid out.

...Right then... I'll leave you to your transcendant "General" speak that you were using in response to a specific forum post. I have to admire the retreat there dude, it's very creative.

I'm sorry you feel that way, but you're wrong. You're saying that homosexual love is not as valid as heterosexual love. It's very much comparable to saying black people shouldn't have the same rights as white people. The reason you can't see this is because you have bigoted views about homosexual but perhaps not about black people/other races different to your own. Believing a certain race is inferior is very similar to believing homosexuals are inferior. Dress it up anyway you want, but that's what you're saying by suggesting homosexual marriage shouldn't be allowed.

Your views are so ingrained though, that I very much doubt you'll be able to see this. I'm attacking your views and this will feel like an attack on you and I expect you won't get past that and use it as an excuse to dismiss these points.

I expect these people felt their views were entirely reasonable, and that everyone should have been tolerant of their opinion too: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Little_Rock_integration_protest.jpg/500px-Little_Rock_integration_protest.jpg

HAS ANYONE REALLY BEEN FAR EVEN AS DECIDED TO USE EVEN GO WANT TO DO LOOK MORE LIKE? I AM ANG. THERE IS TROUBLE ON THE HIGHWAY. EH IS A COOL GUY WHO DOESN'T AFRAID WHERE IS MY TANKER I AM IN THE FISH. EGGMAN.

OH MY SHOES.