One of the big arguments the Yes on 8 scum used went something like this: "Gay people already have all the rights accorded straight married couples through domestic partnerships. Prop 8 takes nothing away from them. They don't need to be married." These are the same arguments the "separate but equal" segregationists used to keep blacks out of mainstream American life for 100 years. Let's take a look at how "separate but equal" is working for domestic partners, shall we?

1. Heterosexual married couples automatically receive certain federal tax benefits, just for being married, whether they have children or not. Gay domestic partners do not enjoy those benefits.

2. If a man dies, his wife is eligible for his Social Security survivor's benefits. Gay domestic partners do not enjoy that benefit.

3. If a man marries a woman, his wife is eligible to be covered under his employer's health insurance plan. Domestic partners do not share that benefit, unless the employer allows it.

4. By law, a wife is automatically a beneficiary of her husband's 401k plan, pension plan, life insurance, etc. No such protection exists for domestic partners.

5. If a man falls in love with a woman from another country, and wishes to marry her, there would be no problem getting her a visa and eventual US citizenship. Gays do not have that right. Thousands of loving gay couples have had to break up because one of the couple was not allowed to stay in the country.

6. If a man is critically injured in an auto accident and rushed to the hospital, his wife would have immediate access to him, his doctors, and any information just by using the words "I am his wife." Gay partners would have to jump through all kinds of hoops to get the same access.

7. Heterosexual married couples do not have to travel with a suitcase full of legal documents to prove they are married.

8. Heterosexual couples do not have to spend thousands of dollars in legal fees to prepare all the legal documents to prove they are a couple.

9. The Family Medical Leave Act allows a wife to take 12 weeks unpaid leave per year to care for her ailing husband, without fear of losing her job. Domestic partners have no such protection.

10. Most company bereavement leave policies do not apply to unmarried domestic partners.

11. If a wife puts her husband through medical school, and then he dumps her, she gets half of everything. A gay domestic partner in the same situation gets nothing.

Those are just a few differences between "marriage" and "domestic partnership." Please note that not one of them had anything to do with children, which was another red herring of the Yes on 8 scum.

Society has a respect has for "marriage" that it does not have for "domestic partnerships." The only way to correct that disparity is to grant gays and lesbian couples the same rights and responsibilities that their hetero counterparts have.

Earl Warren, writing the Supreme Court's opinion in "Brown vs Board of Education" wrote that separate was inherently unequal. It's time we apply that same wisdom to gay and lesbian couples.