An acquaintance called me early Tuesday afternoon.

He called me once...didn't leave a message.

He called again...didn't leave a message.

He called me again five minutes later and then I relented and answered my phone.

"Ivars, did you hear it, did you hear it?" he said to me breathlessly.

Before I could make an attempt to respond to him, gasping for air, he went on.

"New Hampshire just signed on as the sixth state to approve gay marriage. Can you believe it...can you believe it," he continued.

Being the damp blanket I can be responded, "That's nice."

"That's all you can say? What's wrong with you?" Before I got a chance to continue he hanged up on me.

What I wanted to really say was "big whoop." What is all the excitement all about? O.K., it is nice to see another state to recognize same-sex couples as having "equal rights," but the fact is that it means NOTHING. Despite all of the hoopla, there seems to be a total disconnect on these pronouncements when you look at the basic fact that until the basic attitudes towards gay people in general changes, gays and lesbians will continue to be discriminated. Maybe they won't be openly discriminated against as they have been in the past, but there is nothing to stop gays and lesbians to be discriminated against in less obvious and underhanded ways. And then you have the right-wing Bible bangers (actually hypocrites who will proclaim that only God can "judge"), who themselves are making judgment by citing and pigeonholing even the most ridiculous Bible passage with "their interpretation" in order to justify their homophobic paradigms. (My favorite excuse by far has to be when Bible-bangers run out of Bible passages by saying, "If God had intended there to be same-sex marriage, He would have created Adam and Steve and not Adam and Eve.")

The bottom line is that only when President Obama actually takes a real stand on an issue (Heaven forbid) and signs the executive order ending fellow Democrat President Bill Clinton's disastrous "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Then I will share in my acquaintance's breathless excitement and agree that the gay community will have made a significant stride in social justice.