Willie Nelson, like anyone else who essentially isn't a bigot, thinks gay marriage should be legal. And his reasoning for it -- aside from the obvious Equal Protection stuff -- is perfect:

"Gay people should be just as miserable as the rest of us."

Nelson sat down for a chat with Texas Monthly, he explained, "It's ridiculous to me that this is something we're having a conversation about this in this day and age. I thought it was something that was settled a long time ago."

Obviously it's not, and that annoys him.

"For same-sex couples, taxes are different, benefits are different, survivor benefits are different. It's crazy ... even the Supreme Court doesn't know what to do about it," Nelson, who's been following the coverage, griped. "They say, 'Don't ask me. Ask somebody else.' They don't want to get in the middle of the states on it. And what are they going to do, come in and override states that have said it's okay? It's a mess."

"I never thought of marriage as something only for men and women. But I'd never marry a guy I didn't like."

Nelson explained that the gay rights movement is akin to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. "It's about human rights. As humanity, we've come through so many problems from the beginning to here," he said. "I guess it finally had to come around to this. This is just another situation, another problem. We'll work it out and move on. We'll look back and say it was crazy that we ever even argued about this."

"I never had a problem with any of it," the Mary Jane lover said simply. "I've known straight and gay people all my life. I can't tell the difference. People are people where I came from."

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