On rights...I want to talk about two of my uncles for a moment.

[Mother Of Four]

I was just sitting here, thinking.

About my Uncle Vic...and my Uncle Frank.

Vic was by blood...Frank, because he loved our Vic.

Some years back, our Vic was diagnosed with Liver Cancer. (This is hard for me btw)

When he was in the hospital, he took a turn for the worse and things started shutting down on him. He was moved to ICU to get stable, and Frank wasn't permitted to see him because he wasn't "Family"

No matter what Vic said, or what we tried to express to the staff and Dr. Frank was not allowed in.

Uncle Vic and Uncle Frank had been together as long as I could remember. They owned a shop together as partners, lived together, paid bills...

But couldn't file taxes together, couldn't claim any rights at all.

This is an important issue, one thats often overlooked. I see so many posts on here talking about sexism, racism...

And all I can think about each time I read them, is my Uncle Vic signing himself out of the hospital as soon as we was stable to go home and die because "I would rather die at home with Frankie, than stay here in the hospital alone."

They never wanted marriage, all they wanted was the same rights that married couples have. They wanted the right the be recognized not just socially, but legally as a couple.

Uncle Frank sold the store, and then passed on a couple years later.

I just wanted to bring this up, because I feel it's so important.

Edwards supports Civil Unions, though not marriage.
Obama supports Civil Unions, though not marriage.
Clinton supports Civil Unions, though not marriage. (And the whole DOMA thing really makes me uncomfortable)

Besides just barely grazing on this subject, it astonishes me that so much is being made about gender and skin color...
When another great prejudice is still active and alive under our noses right now.

It's just odd to me that so many would be up in arms about all of that, yet not be up in arms about this.