>>Of course it's a fight over words. Labels are important. Who wants to be called a "racist" or a "pedophile"- even if they aren't one. What you call things, and how you group people, matters. That's why it pisses people off to be labeled (even sometimes when you label them correctly.)<<
MP -
It's not just a fight over words. Those who say that civil unions already confer all the rights of marriage on gay couples, so gay marriage is unnecessary, seem to be ignoring the fact that such civil unions are available in only a handful of states. (CA, DC, HI, ME, MD, NH, NJ, OR, WA)
In some of those states, civil unions confer most of the same legal rights as marriage does, but not all of them. California is one example. Here, there's a thing called a Domestic Partnership. It's available to homosexual couples and some people over 62 years of age, and was established in 1999. At that time, there were few legal rights associated with it.
Those rights have been expanded over the years, but they still don't include things like spousal benefits under the CalPERS long-term care insurance plan. It's worth noting that every expansion of benefits under the Domestic Partnership law has been fought in court by groups opposed to gay rights.
- Allen |
