Ian-

It would be great to have the luxury of being an idealist. First, it is likely that the gay population of the U.S. is closer to 10%. As you know, the U.S. is substantially larger (referring to population) than Canada. Kerry has said that he believes in equal rights for gays, as long as it isn't called marriage. There are too many narrow-minded ignorant people in this country that would not vote for Kerry if he were to support marriage for gays and lesbians.

I personally would rather have a president who I know is willing to give us equal rights even if he might not be able to make it happen during his tenure as president, than to have a president who believes that we're not entitled to have equal rights because that would undermine family values. Again, it isn't ideal but I'll take the lesser of two evils, particularly when one of the evils is SO evil.