This is a guest post by Tim Jones that originally appeared on PonderPost. It was published on May 11, 2009 and is republished her with the permission of Tim Jones since PonderPost is being restructured for a future relaunch.
I live in Florida and know a few gay couples that were married, here in Florida. You might be saying, “I thought gay marriage had not been legalized in Florida?” Well, you’re right. As far as the government is concerned, it’s not a legally binding contract, as a standard marriage.
However, they were married, in a church, in Florida, with the full bridal party, and rings. We’ll come back to that, in a minute.
Marriage is a sacrament — a state of grace or a vocation between you, your spouse, and God. When I got married, I wasn’t particularly concerned with what the government thought or did with respect to my marriage. I just wanted to be married to my wife. I wanted my church’s blessing and my parent’s blessing, but I did not concern myself with the state’s blessing.
Many churches (not the Roman Catholic faith to which I belong) in Florida will perform weddings for gay couples. You can have the full ceremony, complete with flowers, music, and reception. With the blessing of these churches and your family, you can be a married couple — what would seem to be the most important part of this sacred union.
With that in mind, I’m not stopping anyone from getting married in the state of Florida (or any other state, for that matter) and truly, neither is the state of Florida.
The “fight” for gay marriage is nothing more than a 
red herring designed to grab money from the public coffers for a small minority population, in the name of “tolerance,” “diversity,” and “political correctness.”
Any gay couple, anywhere can get married, if they want to badly enough to find a church that will marry them. Will they have a license from the state? Maybe, maybe not, depending on the state. But what difference does that make? Isn’t the important thing that you committed your life to another in the name of love and they did the same?
Apparently, that’s not enough for the gay community. They want all the rights and benefits afforded heterosexual married couples. This is nothing more than a continuation of the vicious spiral our country has found itself in, where everyone wants their piece of the pie, along with part of yours.
It’s more of the entitlement mentality that will ultimately destroy the foundation of our country and revoke our liberty. Gimme, gimme, gimme.
You want to marry your gay lover? Go for it. I certainly won’t stand in your way, but stay out of my pocket.