sc94597 said:
As a gay person who never plans to get married, (I view marriage as a silly waste of money and personal freedom, I don't need marriage to show that I trust and love another person.) I hope all 1,138 of those are demolished. Truly equal treatment would entail the same benefits for all people, regardless of whether or not they are "married", non-married but a couple, or single. The only issue is next-of-kin, but that was dealt with for millenia before state-sanctioned and licensed marriages. With people more literate than ever, it should not be an issue to privately deal with whom you believe to be your next of kin and the recepient of your goods as well as the decision maker in the event that you are incapacitated through a signed contract. For those who don't want specific contracts, they can purchase pre-made but popular contracts that deal with all the legal issue from a laywer or even the state if it wants to sell that service in a competitive market. This allows for people who want to specify their relationship to do so, and for those who want the one-sized fit all relationships to do so. Instead of having the state tell me who is my next of kin, I get to choose for myself. |
You have to understand, that sometimes you have familial disputes during these trying times, and not every family is accepting of how their sons/daughters etc... are born. There are horror stories where, because the State doesn't recognize the marriage, the family (blood relatives) of the ill/victim/decedent can refuse entry to the spouse. I mean just utter utter cruelty and meanness. It's these kinds of situations that really impact me. I cannot fathom being kept out of my ill/dying spouses hospital room, because of a power/hate struggle with blood relatives.
For me, as a single, straight, white male, my concern is that every citizen of the country is treated with equal respect under the eyes of the law. I don't demand everyone like each other (a fools errand), simply that the law doesn't treat any citizens as beneath anyone else (The Law should be blind to everything but whether they're a citizen or not). The way 'marriage' is woven deeply into US State and Federal Law, demands that everyone have equal access to it. By the State/Feds own hands, it goes well beyond just tax benefits.
I'd personally be fine with seeing the word marriage erased from all fed/state law. Given the fury over this, it really shouldn't be a difficult case to argue. The religious think marriage is their word, as such, it has no place being recognized by American law. Just make sure when it is removed, and everyone has to go and get new licenses for <insert word that replaces marriage here>, we all point out that if certain religious organizations/people hadn't been such utter pricks about this, you wouldn't have to deal with another layer of bureaucracy.
