I had been wanting to pay tribute to those countries that have embraced their gay and lesbian citizens by granting them the same rights as everyone else. I decided to start with Spain. While not the first country to allow same-sex marriage, the Catholic church's considerable influence made it seem, at least to me, one of the least likely of places to grant us the legal right to love whom we choose.

If the governments of the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada and Spain can overcome the injustice of banning same-sex marriage, one would think that a country such as the United States, founded on freedom of religion... and thus freedom from religion... would find it unconscionable to deny homosexuals the right to marry based on any kind of religious argument.

We are not asking for special rights. We are simply asking for the same rights as our heterosexual family members and friends. You know, liberty and justice for all.