Can someone explain to me...

...why certain Americans calling themselves "Christians" consider the two of us a threat to their family? Doesn't make any sense to me at all. We've had gay marriage in the Netherlands for years now and I don't know of one family (or child) that's suffered as a result. What are you so scared of? Why do you want to make our lives so complex? Securing the same rights (i.e. inheritance, hospital visitation, etc.) costs us tens of thousands of dollars to arrange while for you it comes automatic with marriage.

Can't you imagine that we might love each other the same way you love your husband/wife? Is that so impossible? Stop trying to meddle with the fulfillment of our basic human rights and get back to worshipping God instead of trying to impose your narrow idea of religion on the U.S. It's dangerous and it can end in nothing but a repeat of the inquisition or McCarthyism all over again. Your passion and lack of logic and perspective is starting to resemble that of Islamic fundamentalists more and more every day, and I see no way your attempts to turn the U.S. into a theocracy can end in anything but the meltdown of American freedoms, liberties and traditions.

Here is some of the debate coming out of congress from CNN:

"I don't believe there's any issue that's more important than this one," said Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican. "I think this debate is very healthy, and it's winning a lot of hearts and minds. I think we're going to show real progress."

"The federal marriage amendment debate simply is an opportunity for us to affirm our support for marriage," said Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican. "It is an important debate to have in this country."

But Sen. Ted Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, denounced the proposed amendment Tuesday as "an instrument of bigotry and prejudice," which he said was designed by the GOP leadership "to try to bring Republican senators out of the ditch of disapproval."

And Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said that "the reason the Senate Republicans are pushing this marriage amendment is because they don't want to address the real issues of this country."

"This is an effort by the president and the majority in the House and the Senate to distort, to misdirect what the real issues are," he told reporters Tuesday.