ArchivedWhy do you oppose gay marriage?I see no reason to call a marriage a "legal partnership" -- or "civil union," for that matter -- simply because the people getting married are gay. There's no reason for our rights to be any different from yours -- and if they're going to be the same, why should <I>we</I> use a clunky legalistic phrase, when there's a perfectly good word for it already?
I think there's a possibility that my state (Massachusetts) will be the first to legalize gay marriage, and <I>soon.</I> The court decision is months overdue, at the point, but I assume they're not going to sit on it forever. The fact that it's taken this long suggests to me that it's a very close thing, whichever way it's going to go.
Why would a gay person want to marry? For the usual reason, even among those who believe in the "Christian definition": Because they've fallen in love with someone, and want to spend the rest of our lives with that person. And because marriage, as well as being the traditional thing to do in such a situation, provides many rights that are beneficial to two people in a long-term committed relationship.
Here's a list from the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund:
On the order of 1,400 legal rights are conferred upon married couples in the U.S. Typically these are composed of about 400 state benefits and over 1,000 federal benefits. Among them are the rights to:
joint parenting;
joint adoption;
joint foster care, custody, and visitation (including non-biological parents);
status as next-of-kin for hospital visits and medical decisions where one partner is too ill to be competent;
joint insurance policies for home, auto and health;
dissolution and divorce protections such as community property and child support;
immigration and residency for partners from other countries;
inheritance automatically in the absence of a will;
joint leases with automatic renewal rights in the event one partner dies or leaves the house or apartment;
inheritance of jointly-owned real and personal property through the right of survivorship (which avoids the time and expense and taxes in probate);
benefits such as annuities, pension plans, Social Security, and Medicare;
spousal exemptions to property tax increases upon the death of one partner who is a co-owner of the home;
veterans' discounts on medical care, education, and home loans; joint filing of tax returns;
joint filing of customs claims when traveling;
wrongful death benefits for a surviving partner and children;
bereavement or sick leave to care for a partner or child;
decision-making power with respect to whether a deceased partner will be cremated or not and where to bury him or her;
crime victims' recovery benefits;
loss of consortium tort benefits;
domestic violence protection orders;
judicial protections and evidentiary immunity;
and more....
Most of these legal and economic benefits cannot be privately arranged or contracted for. For example, absent a legal (or civil) marriage, there is no guaranteed joint responsibility to the partner and to third parties (including children) in such areas as child support, debts to creditors, taxes, etc. In addition, private employers and institutions often give other economic privileges and other benefits (special rates or memberships) only to married couples. And, of course, when people cannot marry, they are denied all the emotional and social benefits and responsibilities of marriage as well.
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