President Obama announced Wednesday that he believes same-sex couples should be granted the right to marry, becoming the first U.S. president in history to fully embrace that level of civil rights for gays.Read the rest here.
Obama’s announcement gave an immediate jolt to the decades-long movement for gay equality at a moment when a growing number of states are moving to ban — or legalize — same-sex unions and as polls show a majority of Americans support marriage rights.
Yawn... in other news the sun rose in the east this morning. We need to get the government out of the whole marriage issue. The word "marriage" should be expunged from the legal code and replaced with "civil union" or some equivalent phrase. Those who want their particular domestic arrangements recognized by the state could then go to the court house and file the appropriate paperwork.
Those who wish to "marry" would then go to their respective place of worship and speak with their respective clergy person and ask to marry. Marriage would thus become a purely private matter of religious faith with no interference from the state.
Should there be any limits on civil unions? Yes. For obvious and pragmatic reasons polygamous or polyamorous relationships as also incestuous and nonconsensual civil unions would be proscribed.
He desperately needs campaign funds, and he's decided that a significant portion of his poorer supporters is expendable.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you 100% about the goverment getting out of marriage altogether. I and people I know have been saying this for years. Why do there not seem to be any policy-makers pushing for this by now?
ReplyDeleteFor obvious and pragmatic reasons polygamous or polyamorous relationships as also incestuous and nonconsensual civil unions would be proscribed.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Are there not similar policy reasons for not recognizing the validity of homosexual practices?
The problem is that the gov't is all over the marriage business because because it is involved in every aspect of our lives. ALL textbooks will have to be rewritten so as not to be same-sex averse. Social Security rules will have to be rewritten. That's just the tip of the iceberg.
ReplyDeleteState-licensed marriage is a holdover from the old conquest/dynasty concerns of primitive societies, you know, like monarchies that treat incorrectly-blooded people and their private property as the monarch's personal toys.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Church hierarchy would agree with the State's getting out of the marriage business once they realized that a privatized marriage contract could both be (1) customized according to Orthodox tradition and (2) legally enforceable. The Church would decide which contracts it would bless. At present, how hard is it to get out of a State-licensed Orthodox marriage?
Frankly, I don't have a problem with heterodox who choose polygamy, and I can't see where Big Love adversely affects public policy. As long as legal incompetents (e.g., minors and lunatics) are protected, I personally don't give a rat's ass.
Visibilium, how high and think would you like the walls of your ghetto?
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