Here is a really great post that David Levithan wrote at YA for Obama: BECAUSE I AM, AMONG OTHER THINGS, SICK AND TIRED OF BEING TOLERATED by David Levithan

Now, don’t get me wrong – I think it’s ridiculous to say you support equal rights and then say you do so with the exception of the word “marriage” – and it is that word that the whole distinction is about. But look at the difference in the answers, which I think accurately reflects not just the difference between Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin on rights for same-sex partners, but on how they would govern in general. Put Biden’s “there will be absolutely no distinction from a constitutional standpoint or a legal standpoint between a same-sex and a heterosexual couple” against Palin’s remarkable fragment, “But I also want to clarify, if there's any kind of suggestion at all from my answer that I would be anything but tolerant of adults in America choosing their partners, choosing relationships that they deem best for themselves, you know, I am tolerant and I have a very diverse family and group of friends and even within that group you would see some who may not agree with me on this issue, some very dear friends who don't agree with me on this issue” – a tolerance that she then goes on to qualify. Also, she makes no mention of the fact that she opposed the same-sex partner rights bill in Alaska that became law – so when she says “no one would ever propose, not in a McCain-Palin administration, to do anything to prohibit, say, visitations in a hospital or contracts being signed, negotiated between parties,” that is in fact something she said she wanted to prevent in Alaska (but signed into law when she was told she would lose).

It is easy enough to proclaim “I am tolerant” – but you need to go beyond that, much further beyond that, both as a person and particularly as a leader. Palin’s answer – which, I know, represents many people’s answer, in states both blue and red – is just another souvenir of the last vestiges of American prejudice. The answer to “Should all people be treated equal?” is not “I am tolerant” – it is “Yes.” Imagine if Palin had been asked “Do you think women should have the same rights as men?” and Palin had replied “I am tolerant.” Or if she’d been asked if Jews should have the same rights as Christians. Or if she’d been asked if interracial couples should have the same rights as single-race couples. Tolerance isn’t enough when it comes to basic, inalienable human rights.