= new reply since forum marked as read
And this one too! 
^snip^
After the Middle Ages in Europe, same-sex relationships were increasingly frowned upon and banned in many countries by the Church or the state. Nevertheless, Historian John Boswell argued that Adelphopoiesis, or brother-making, represented an early form of religious same-sex marriage in the Orthodox church. Alan Bray saw the rite of Ordo ad fratres faciendum ("Order for the making of brothers"
as serving the same purpose in the medieval Roman Catholic Church. However, the historicity of Boswell's interpretation of the ceremony is contested by the Greek Orthodox Church[citation needed], and his scholarship critiqued as being of dubious quality by theologian Robin Darling Young.[36]
In late medieval France, it is possible the practice of entering a legal contract of "enbrotherment" (affrèrement) provided a vehicle for civil unions between unrelated male adults who pledged to live together sharing ‘un pain, un vin, et une bourse’ – one bread, one wine, and one purse. This legal category may represent one of the earliest forms of sanctioned same-sex unions.[37]
While the church father, Augustine of Hippo, presented marriage as an important sacrament of the Christian Church in the 5th century CE,[38] it wasn't until the "Sentences" of Peter Lombard, in the middle of the 12th century, that marriage became a part of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Christian Church.[39][40]
A same-sex marriage between the two men Pedro Díaz and Muño Vandilaz in the Galician municipality of Rairiz de Veiga in Spain occurred on 16 April 1061. They were married by a priest at a small chapel. The historic documents about the church wedding were found at Monastery of San Salvador de Celanova.[41]
and Bernie was for abolishing all laws regarding sexual behavior specifically mentioning adultery and homosexuality. I will admit a tiny little bit of a gray area in the phrasing, but not much. Knowing that gay men had already been trying to establish their right for marriage equality, and specifically mentioning that all laws dealing with homosexuality be abolished does seem to add up to being for marriage equality as early as the early 1970s.
http://gaymarriage.procon.org/view.timeline.php?timelineID=000030
^snip^
"On May 18, 1970, two University of Minnesota students, Richard John 'Jack' Baker and James Michael McConnell applied to Hennepin County District Court clerk Gerald Nelson for a marriage license. He denied the application, because the applicants both were men.
Baker and McConnell sued Nelson, claiming Minnesota law on marriage made no mention of gender. The trial court was not impressed with the argument, agreeing with Nelson. The state Supreme Court agreed with the lower court. When Baker-McConnell went to the U.S. Supreme Court, the couple was rebuffed again...
Baker v. Nelson has been used in other states as precedent to block efforts at marriage equality
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/bernie-sanders-was-full-gay-equality-40-years-ago
^snip^
In a letter he published in the early 1970’s, when he was a candidate for governor of Vermont from the Liberty Union Party, Sanders invoked freedom to call for the abolition of all laws related to homosexuality:
as long as you don't start genuflecting when you see her image...
Boiling these (extremely important) concepts down to pith. We need more of that.
