host

You're right that it's "not prejudice". It's homphobia encouraged by religious
centric intolerance and the ignorant belief that homosexually oriented
individuals "choose" to be attracted to members of their own sexual gender.

"Gay" marriage is interchangeable with "same-sex" marriage, which is defined
as <a href="http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn?stage=1&word=same-sex+marriage">"two people of the same sex who live together as a family".</a>

How does your question, (reasonable from your point of view, as you are
influenced by the belief systems endemic to your geographic environment)
read when the word "Gay" is replaced with: If we allowed two people of the same sex who live together as a family, "would we also allow polygamy"?

I' m from the northeast, more recently residing in Manhattan for several
years. I also have the perspective of living very near to where you are
located for the past 33 months. When I read your polygamy question,
I reacted with the same huhhhh??? at the apparent disconnection in your
question, with your use of "gay marriage" and "polygamy" in the same
sentence. Your point of view is totally foreign to mine. You apparently
see the term "Gay" as a deviant reference, where I see it as interchangeable
with "same-sex" orientation or attraction. We both apparently recognize
the term "polygamy" as deviant.

My 33 months living in your area has opened my eyes to societal differences
that I had never before considered. Creationist earth science and geology;
a belief that the earth is only 10,000 years old.....and the declaration that
evolution is "just one theory" were probably the "biggest eye openers" for
me to adjust to.

People in your area do not accept that "gay" is normal. Same-sex marriage
is not something that you.....or your local laws, "allow", any more than you
"allow" opposite-sex marriage. Marriage just "is". Sexual attraction and
romantic love, just "are". You will see that constitutional law, as embodied
in your Georgia state and in the U.S. constitutions is incompatible with
your state's new "marriage" amendment.

Much of what you attriibute to the ways of your part of the country, are,
in their intent, and in their impact, prejudicial and intolerant, whether you
perceive it or not. Manhattan is the center of the most vibrant and
internationally and minority inclusive city in the world for a reason. It is a
city comprised of people who want to live there because they stand a
better chance of being accepted there because of what they can accomplish,
and in spite of who they are, than just about anywhere else.
From what I have experienced, you live in a parochial and homogeneous
society, not unlike a typical communtiy in the European countryside.
Primarily composed of people of one race, one religion, one political
orientation. Your environment constrains your ability to react matter of
factly to people of different ethnic, sexual, religious, or political orientation
than the ones that are dominant in your communtiy. Your tendency is to
be intolerant and to exclude reflexively. The new marriage amendment is
a symptom of a deficiency that short changes everyone in your state, not
just those that it aims to "control".

New York may seem like a cold, hectic, and harsh place to live, from your
point of view, but I assure you, having lived in both places, unless you are
a caucasian, middle class, protestant, republican, Georgia would seem a
much more harsh and unforgiving environment to live in than Manhattan.
If living in freedom is about not being held back because of your race, creed,
gender or sexual orientation, Manhattan is recognized by the world as the
place to be. What kind of a place do you want your state to be recognized
as ?