Iran is one of the few true Theocracies, where scripture is law...

Be careful what you wish for. If the American government were to become "bible based" lets hope it's based on the beatitudes and not Leviticus, eh?

"Focused on Sharia or Islamic law, key to the initiative will be to carry the message that gay sex is illegal, immoral and legitimately punishable by death.

Iran is reported to have executed at least six juvenile offenders so far in 2008. More than 130 other juvenile offenders are currently sentenced to death. These are all boys averaging 15-16 years of age.

Iranian human rights campaigners estimate that 4,000 gay men have been executed since the Islamic revolution in 1979. -from PAYOR"

Then there is the state of Israel, they are also a biblically based nation. You must be Jewish to gain citizenship there, either a convert to Judaism or the child of a Jewish mother. They do not use the new testament as the basis for their laws, culture or attitudes politically. And yet they are one of the few (if any?) nations in the middle east where Homosexuality is not illegal, despite Leviticus and friends. they do not force menstruating women to stay at home. They do not stone adulterers. Even though the Jewish scriptures demand such actions. Why hasn't Isreal, the darling of a certain wing of American evangelical Christianity, enforced these scriptures as secular law? Because, among other reasons, the modern Israeli state, like the United States of America, is the product of the European "age of enlightenment" and all that came thereafter until at least the 1930's. A vast majority of the Jewish population of Israel is of European background and relatively recent immigrants and they have brought these European values with them.

The state also has to deal with a multiplicity of religious views, from Reform Judaism to Ultra Conservative Judaism and as such, in order to maintain a cohesive modern society, have needed to incorporate a respect for these varied religious views in to the law of the state. In order to preserve crucial unity in the face of great external threats they have adopted religious and social freedoms that do not exist elsewhere in the middle eastern world.

It is not America's heritage, nor in America's interests to become divided politically over matters that are fundamentally an issue of faith. America will not become stronger if her government is given over to the hands of one particular religious group, even if said group considers itself the "chosen ones" of God.

I write all of this because, the only reasonable argument left against employment rights for gays (one can be legally fired in many states based upon their sexual preference), marriage rights, etc in America is a faith based argument that is founded upon the particular interpretations of a particular set of very limited Scriptures by Christians of a particular outlook. Should we follow the example of Iran and attempt to impose faith based arguments onto the entire population via governmental decree? Or should we follow the example of Israel and, though acknowledging the common cultural reality that religious history has given us, choose, for the sake of unity and perhaps one day, the survival of our culture, freedom and mutual respect even if various groups disagree over a handful of faith based issued?