Gay marriage as a political issue is not going away until all sides have burned up any political fuel left in the issue.
The simple non-political solutions are obvious. If your community defines marriage as such and such, then go get your marriage recognized by that community according to those terms and leave the state out of it.
With regard to legal status, everyone who is concerned about it should register their relationships according to contractual terms through the legal system. The state can then recognize relationships that are bound financially and tax or benefit them according to the circumstance. Partners in any financially obligated circumstance are then treated equitably by the state. If you have an elder or handicapped person dependant upon you for support, this is no different than a spouse, partner, or child dependency (economically).
Human rights is a just cause for all American political groups to support and gays are human beings entitled to that support.
It is a self-evident fact that honorable human beings are endowed with the natural right to think, speak, and conduct themselves freely with regard to the well being of creatures and creation… and to freely associate.
We are at a point where it is beneficial to society to legitimize relationships that have a cultural impact and that can be defined as an economic sub-culture. There is a lot of arguable speculation about the impacts of gay relationships and the ‘gay community.’ When you legitimize gay relationships you are also able to track the issues and gather empirical data.
MARRIAGE is a term that connects many things via its application but it doesn’t ring true as a right.
Primarily:
1)It accomplishes the goal of legitimizing relationships for the state.
2)It also connects the world view of hetero-sexual family centered communities and states. The world view of history related to heterosexual-values, activity, and purpose; while the vision going forward is enmeshed with the progeny of continuity of direction.
Is it the only way to accomplish these things? In the case of number 1, the answer is absolutely not. In the case of number two, the world view of gay families is one generational. To redefine MARRIAGE as inclusive of other groups coerces a change that is detrimental to the world view of the hetero-sexual family oriented communities.
MARRIAGE is not simply a synonym of the legal union of a couple. Frankly, I think it is time for the state to get out of the MARRIAGE business all together. Make ‘civil union’ a requirement for any couple to be recognized by law and leave the term ‘MARRIAGE’ to what ever communities choose to define it according to their views on it, but kept outside the jurisdiction of the laws of the land. I doubt ‘gay MARRIAGE’ would even be an issue under those circumstances. |
