I'm aware that there are actual, specific, legitimate benefits that gay couples are actively prohibited by law from enjoying. I'm aware that there is at least a little value (even if purely symbolic) in having the prevailing legal authority in your community recognize (and not persecute) your relationship. Gay people have my sympathies and I wish they'd be left alone...just as I wish blacks, Muslims, bosses, and other disregarded classes should be free from being bothered for no reason other than by virtue of which class to which they belong.

That said, I cannot help but be a bit dismayed when I hear of homosexuals almost begging for the state to approve of them even though I think their civil disobedience is admirable.