As most people know, Nick and I are married ONLY because we want the special rights afforded those who tie the knot. Yes, there are laws here and there for “domestic partners” but they are weak, not enforced and vary by COUNTY and even by COMPANY.
I think it’s hilarious that we felt that we had NO CHOICE but to get married to ensure that our finances and our healthcare decisions would be guaranteed to the other if anything happened to one of us. Not to mention the long list of discounts you get for having that piece of paper.
Personally, we think it’s fucked up that we HAD to get married. If we didn’t, we’d have to manually do contracts and tons of paperwork supervised by lawyers to ensure that the other person has full rights and controls if one is gravely ill or dies. I know a gay couple who did just that. They had piles of paperwork that cost thousands of dollars to create to ensure that they kept custody of their daughter, could administer the money or make health decisions for each other.
I just don’t see what the big fucking deal is with gay marriage. The big deal is that STRAIGHT people are discriminated against just as much if they don’t want to marry. Nick and I HAD to have the piece of fucking paper – don’t think that you get partner rights just because you’re straight – YOU DON’T. In MY opinion, WE have been discriminated against because there are NO domestic partnership laws.
You want equality? Let’s get DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP laws on the books. Marriage is an artificial social contract. It has never served any purpose other than to the church. It has evolved into a whole list of rights and privileges that have nothing to do with the act of marriage at all. It’s a social contract that grants SPECIAL rights to the participants. And it’s NOT FAIR.
You want to RAGE against something? Then RAGE against this whole society being rooted in silly Christian religious crap that affects straights, gays, blacks, everyone.
RAGE that STRAIGHT PEOPLE are expected to get married if they want the same privileges afforded the married. Want that insurance discount? Get married. Want to see your partner in the hospital? Get married.
If we put as much energy into EQUAL RIGHTS FOR EVERYONE as we do into railing about gay marriage rights, we might actually get somewhere.
Don’t-Call-Me-Mrs-Pratt-OR-Mizgala
It’s ANGELA.
MISAngela if you’re nasty.
:-)
This is very close to how I feel about the whole situation.
I want the government to stay the fuck out of marriage. The only thing that should concern them is whether there is a civil partnership or not. “Sanctity,” that thing that people keep railing about being the important part of marriage? Why the FUCK would I want the government to be a part of that? Let the churches argue with each other about what is sacred, let people argue with each other, but that shouldn’t be an arguement that we take to the law books.
I’m happy to be married. Stupidly so. I like tradition (well, I like the ones I pick and choose to like, and that’s my right). I don’t see how the government has a right to say that my partnership is more valid than anyone else’s, though.
Of the many gay couples I know, I know of a couple that have been close to me for years that have been together since 1992. Their partnership lasted longer than my legal heterosexual first marriage lasted. They live in California and *just* got the legal right to make their union official. They did so.
So which does more “harm” to the idea of marriage? My divorce or their marriage? Fuck all that.
We need to end this form of religious intolerance practiced by the state. The state should be protecting the law, not ideas of sanctity.
Gar.
RIGHT ON.
It’s not a religious act, it’s a social act. No special privileges should be assigned to marriage, period. If you want to do it – knock yerself out. If you don’t, no harm no foul.
It’s sickening that everyone loses the way it’s currently set up. Domestic partnership should either be put in place of marriage or we just do away with all of it. It’s the only fair thing. But it will NEVER EVER happen.
well since california overturned the gay marriage right, looks like the northeast might be a nice option.
I agree with this one bajillion percent! It’s not fair for anyone, the same way that you and I, as married women, are EXPECTED to have kids and looked at funny since we don’t want them. The difference is in the eyes of the law we’re not freaks.
It just seems right now, the best way to start is by getting the rights for those who do want to get married on that path. Maybe because more straight (and therefore, more important) people aren’t rallying to say, “I don’t want to be married, but I do want this person to be my PARTNER in life, and therefore have all the same civil rights in a partnership as business partnership – ability to make decisions, ability to handle finances, ability to speak for me when I am absent, etc etc etc.”
And as for sanctity, yes, dear lord let’s not sully something so beautiful as Brittney Spear’s loving 55 hour commitment to that dude in Vegas. *stab stab stab*
You know what Angela dear, I completely agree. I think that warrants a “FUCK YEAH!” ; )