Are we still discussing gay marriage here? Just checking.
I see a marriage as a legal recognition by the state of a partnership between two people. It gives them 'next of kin' status, it guarantees property rights, inheritance, pensions, yadda dadda. I do not see it as 'the state interfering in people's lives, big government paranoia' and all that jazz, it is the state doing something for me (and yes, I am married). It provides us with the legal basis for the security we want in our lives. I could not care less about the gender, sexual identity or sexual orientation of the two people involved; and I don't think that the state should make any distinction on that basis either.
For example, if my wife was in a persistent vegetative state, she would want me to pull the plug on the life support machines. That is her stated wish to me, her next-of-kin. Before we were married, her mother would have been her next-of-kin, and she would never have complied with my wife's wishes, as she believes it is 'not God's way'. Living together for ten years counts for nothing, if I want to be next-of-kin I need to put a ring on her finger. If I want to benefit from her pension, death-in-service benefits, and vice versa she benefits from mine (and gets to pull the plug on Royston the cabbage), marriage is the only way to do it.
I see no good reason why we, as a mixed-sex couple, should enjoy some advantage in terms of life choices, property rights, all that stuff; when a same-sex couple cannot. If the state has a system that has unfair discrimination built into it, that system needs to be changed. Homosexuality is no longer regarded as a crime, it is no longer regarded as a mental illness, in the UK homosexuals are specifically protected by anti-hate crime legislation, so why shouldn't they be protected by the law around marriage too? We have a state and a legal system to protect our lives and our property, it should do so for everyone, not just the straight majority.
I see a marriage as a legal recognition by the state of a partnership between two people. It gives them 'next of kin' status, it guarantees property rights, inheritance, pensions, yadda dadda. I do not see it as 'the state interfering in people's lives, big government paranoia' and all that jazz, it is the state doing something for me (and yes, I am married). It provides us with the legal basis for the security we want in our lives. I could not care less about the gender, sexual identity or sexual orientation of the two people involved; and I don't think that the state should make any distinction on that basis either.
For example, if my wife was in a persistent vegetative state, she would want me to pull the plug on the life support machines. That is her stated wish to me, her next-of-kin. Before we were married, her mother would have been her next-of-kin, and she would never have complied with my wife's wishes, as she believes it is 'not God's way'. Living together for ten years counts for nothing, if I want to be next-of-kin I need to put a ring on her finger. If I want to benefit from her pension, death-in-service benefits, and vice versa she benefits from mine (and gets to pull the plug on Royston the cabbage), marriage is the only way to do it.
I see no good reason why we, as a mixed-sex couple, should enjoy some advantage in terms of life choices, property rights, all that stuff; when a same-sex couple cannot. If the state has a system that has unfair discrimination built into it, that system needs to be changed. Homosexuality is no longer regarded as a crime, it is no longer regarded as a mental illness, in the UK homosexuals are specifically protected by anti-hate crime legislation, so why shouldn't they be protected by the law around marriage too? We have a state and a legal system to protect our lives and our property, it should do so for everyone, not just the straight majority.
"I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw." ~ Hamlet, Act II, Scene II.
"I don't mean to sound bitter, cynical or cruel; but I am, so that's how it comes out." ~ Bill Hicks.
"I don't mean to sound bitter, cynical or cruel; but I am, so that's how it comes out." ~ Bill Hicks.
