In Defense of Homosexual Marriage
On the cusp of Connecticut’s Supreme Court ruling on the issue of homosexual marriage versus ‘civil unions’ there has been a lot of whining on the Internet from both sides of the — ah, aisle for lack of a better word.
On the one hand you have the homosexuals who point out that a civil union is not the same as a marriage because a marriage grants certain rights that transcend state lines. For example, a couple that is legally protected in Connecticut is involved in an auto accident in New York, two miles outside Connecticut. Despite their legal standing in their home state, they have no legal standing in New York, and when one of the couple is in serious medical distress, the other is not allowed to make any medical decisions because of this. Homosexual couples claim this is unfair. Or, how about this, a couple is on vacation in Florida with their three kids. the couple is, again, involved in an accident and one is killed. The State of Florida takes custody of the three children (or worse, two of the three) because the other half of the couple was in a ‘civil union’ and not a real ‘marriage’ and the partner who died was not the ‘legal’ guardian.
On the other side, you have a collection of arguments that, at their core, come down to “My religion says it is wrong.” Now, there are several national churches in the USA, and around the world, that recognize homosexual unions, but not the fundies, the evangelicals, or the born-agains, and they seem to be the most vocal. Their argument seems to come down to, “If Bob and John can get married, then that means that the value of Mark and Lisa’s marriage is diminished.” How Bob and John affect Mark and Lisa is an open question. I’d love to hear the answer, but of course I never will.
The religious arguments that marriage is a sacrament, a contract with MyInvisiblePal, or a reflection of said InvisiblePal’s creation of “Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve” seem to ignore the fact that, yes, even godless heathens (Agnostics, Jews, Mormons, 7th Day Adventists, Catholics, Muslims, and Jehovah’s Witnesses) are allowed to get married. Thousands of weddings are performed without even the appearance of religious faith being involved in any way. Heck, some people who get married are even — gasp! — ATHEISTS!
Here it is, a marriage, legally, is a contract between two people. It has nothing to do with religion, procreation, or any of the trappings that the religious zealots would have you believe. It is a legal contract that is sanctioned by the government and imbues the parties with certain rights with regards to their mutual property, lives, and children. The fact that Bob and John are married does nothing to diminish anyone else’s marriage any more than a black woman marrying a white man, a Jew marrying a Catholic, or an ugly Lyle marrying a Pretty Woman.
As far as the religious ceremony goes, that is something entirely separate, and no one is telling anyone that because the government recognizes same-sex marriages that means that your church has to as well. You want to exclude fags and drag queens from your clubhouse? Go right ahead. They don’t want to be part of your club anyway.
Sometimes the people on the side against homosexual marriage try to hide the religious fervor of their argument, but if you dig at it deeply enough, eventually MyInvisiblePal will enter the conversation.
The list of countries that recognize same-sex marriage is growing constantly, and eventually the US of A, bastion of backwater thinking that it is, will be forced to accept them as well. About 10 minutes after the first Danish Tourist couple is denied their rights because they’re ‘queer’, I expect. You might be surprised at some of the countries on this list:
Andorra, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greenland, Iceland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. In addition, some form of homosexual union is recognized in Mexico, Canada, Argentina (Its civil union law is not gender specific and applies to any two people who have lived together for 2 years), Brazil, Australia, Italy and even the USA.
So, what happens when a married man has a sex change? Is s/he still legally married to his wife, or does the operation come with an automatic divorce?