These are basic civil rights

This is exactly why gay marriage is important and why the religious right is wrong and will, hopefully, lose this battle and ultimately the war.

A law is being considered in Minnesota to grant hospital visitation rights to gay partners, a right taken for granted if you're married, but denied to gays and lesbians because they cannot legally get married even if they want to:

Being able to visit a loved one in a hospital is something many can take for granted. Gay partners say they can be denied access to their partners in critical situations.

A Senate committee will soon consider a new law that would guarantee that access at all hospitals.

And this the reaction and reasoning of those who call themselves Christian :

Conservative groups are fighting the proposal. Their concern is not about visitation, but putting anything into law that acknowledges same sex partnerships.

"What we object to is the creation of these domestic partner statuses, which is really marriage by another name and that's what we see they are attempting to do”, said Tom Prichard of the Minnesota Family Council.

So they won't give us marriage and they don't want to give us any right that would cover even our most basic needs, like visiting a sick partner in the hospital, and then they are surprised and outraged that we fight back and demand those rights.

Go figure. I guess we should just disappear like ghosts.