Her perspective is interesting -- as long as the government-approved union with all the same rights as marriage is legal for gay people, then it doesn't have to be called "marriage" -- but my impression (based solely on the media) is that, in general, gay people don't want separate-but-equal status, with a differently-named union. If "marriage" is good enough for the hetero American citizens, then why should gay American citizens be forced to accept anything else?
I think the same-sex legal contract in Great Britain is civil marriage rebranded without the word marriage. (Civil partnership vs. civil marriage.)
My personal opinion is that government should be completely out of the "marriage" business altogether.
Amen.
My personal opinion is that government should be completely out of the "marriage" business altogether. Gov't should issue civil unions, i.e. binding legal contracts between adults, to any persons who wish to be united by law. I could give a rat's ass if it's 2 people or 5.
And "marriage" would be left up to religious organizations to do with what they see fit.
This is my opinion as well; my earlier post was just my attempt at articulating *my perception* of the general arguments in favor of gay marriage. (I just wanted to be clear.)
Oh, uh, today is Strega's birthday!
Birthday Happies for Strega!!
I am javachik. "We're very pretty."
happy birthday, Strega.
I'm in the corner with the 'get the state out of marriage and make civil unions - a legal contract- the state business"
One of the reasons I can't see civil unions becoming the default any time soon is then one'd have to admit that as much as they may hope for "till death do us part" it's not at all mandated by the procedure.
Neat article on CNN.com on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission. [link]
Happy birthday, Strega.
One of the reasons I can't see civil unions becoming the default any time soon is then one'd have to admit that as much as they may hope for "till death do us part" it's not at all mandated by the procedure.
People might plan a little more sensibly if they admitted this. I'd be cool with an option of civil unions that were renegotiable after a specified amount of time. Maybe a couple wants to plan on 60+ years together. Maybe they want to get together long enough to raise a couple of kids, but want to pursue their own bliss after the kids are grown. Maybe they want to form a union to support one another for 5 or 10 years after college while they're getting their careers started. People seem to want a lot of things out of their unions, and I'm not sure all of them can be wrapped up in "to death do we part."
I'm with Kat on the love for Obama eating spam musubi! I had to send that article to my mom. Yay, spam!
I love both balsa and paper airplanes. Oh, and we did origami with our kiddoes last year. Mentioning that the paper cup you can make will actually hold liquid? Was a mistake. I mean, it was fine for the teenagers who were all, oh, cool, and drank the pop. But not so much for the little do's who poured the sprite in their paper cups and then held them and held them and held them until the dye in the paper leached into the pop and eventually the pop all mushed out the bottom of the cup. Yeah. We didn't really think that one through.
Oh, and ha about the elementary strings. I have finely developed senses that allow me to ignore instrument cacophony at will. Handy skill.
