14 February 2011 Marital equality stuck in the Dark Ages

In Defense of Marriage, for All

Published: February 13, 2011



The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act is indefensible — officially sanctioned discrimination against one group of Americans imposed during an election year. President Obama seems to know that, or at least he has called on Congress to repeal it. So why do his government’s lawyers continue to defend the act in court?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/opinion/14mon1.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha211

The performer we enjoyed Saturday night, Sonia Rutstein, http://www.soniadf.com/nSite_09/index.html

is prominent in LGBT circles, music, and activism. In her between number comments, she related an n encounter with a Maryland politician who was opposed to “Gay Marriage.” The audience responded with tremendous force.

The basic inequality is blatant and should not take place in this nation. The declaration of partnership for purposes of legal, financial, and other purposes should be available to all American citizens without concern for their gender preference or for their participation in the rites and rituals of any religion. The bias held by many should carry no weight in formation of legal couples.

“Marriage” is the key problem. “Marriage” is a religion-defined term for a civil function. “Marriage” needs to be removed from the political and legal landscape.

When marriages are granted and formalized by religious institutions, the state has abdicated its power for political or economic purpose. All churches want absolute membership, granting them de facto control over the actions of all “members.”

Marriage as a custom began as a property contract to compensate one family for taking surplus women out of the breeding population; or for adding needed new genetic resources to a family, clan, or tribe. In this capacity, it marches in parallel with many religions. The various priests wanted their share of the business and got it for performing various actions and services.

As the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches became the dominant western religions they became tightly intermeshed with the operations of the various nations that evolved from the ashes of the Roman Empire. With that level of power granted to the Churches, there was little difference in which agency, church or nation, formalized marriages. Most states defaulted the legal portion of marriage, along with record keeping, to the Church. As a result, “marriage.” As a civil action became a religious ceremony, it took on an entirely different patina.

Today many nations have recognized this problem and now formalize all marriages through some government agency. In the U.S. there is no requirement that any church be involved in a “marriage” but almost any church can legally “marry a couple and it will be legally recognized. So too, can a Judge, or even a notary public, absolutely not a religious official. In most cases a marriage license, issued by the state or other government level agency is required. Once that license is duly signed, the couple is married according to the state.

The choice to and practice of allowing civil unions to same sex couples solves the legal problems that hinder same sex couples compared to heterogeneous couples. Civil union deals with all the minutia and complexities of inheritance, financial concerns, formal next of kin and power of attorney matters that are considered assigned automatically by “marriage.”

In truth, once the license is signed and processed, all “marriages” are civil unions. It is time that we recognize this and time to strip the “seal of approval” from the various churches that now perform civil unions under the guise of “marriage.”

There is no reason for any sort of political culture war revolving around “marriage.” The union of two men or two women does nothing to damage the union that Gloria and I have. It is time to stop “marriage” as a legal device in this nation and to replace all such devices with civil unions. Today would be an excellent day to begin.

Rather than allowing Congress and their religious power base to waste months and millions arguing about a senseless matter, demand of your state government that they henceforth license and record only civil unions, and that there is to be no gender restriction upon who may enact a civil union. Let’s get the churches out of the states and the states out of religion.

Those people who are worried that the union of a same sex couple will “damage the sanctity of their marriage” need to examine what they are doing together. For those people who can’t live without a formal church wedding, have one. There are enough churches around this nation that someone will be happy to take your money and wave magic items over or around you.

For those of you with the good sense to accept the common sense in this proposal, take up the banner and let’s knock one prop out from under the GOPers/teavangeilists. To you, have a happy Valentine’s Day. For those of you who stand on sky magic that began as a power grab in the Dark Ages, the world is turning beneath you.