But I don't think I am as thrilled about this as the article wants me to be.
They are all a-twitter about CT passing a law to recognize same-sex civil unions...
"Senators debated for nearly four hours on Wednesday before voting 27-9 in favor of the bill, which would give gay and lesbian couples many of the same rights as married couples. ... (snip)..."This is same-sex marriage by a different name," Brown said."
I don't know, but to me discussion about creating a different institution with all of the benefits of the first institution doesn't thrill me. Actually what it makes me think of is: "separate but equal" and I think we've already been through that line of thinking in American politics and abandoned it.
If Gays and Lesbians deserve to be married then they deserve the same recognition as hetero couples, not something separate but equal.
Of course this is where religion comes into the conversation, because "marriage" is a religious institution as much as it is a civil/secular institution.
Why don't all the state governments do everyone a favor and get out of the validating of religious commitments business. All couples could get a civil union in the eyes of the state. Those that want to can get married by religious officials, those having trouble finding acceptance from religious officials would not have to clear that bar before becoming a family. And 99% of the objections to "gay marriage" on moral grounds would crumble away having been made moot. Everyone would still get what they value, and nobody's institution would be lessened, and we could put the real impediment, the clergy, into the spotlight rather than government.
Just a thought.
1 comment:
Um, can I post this at my blog and say that I wrote it? Because I would like to think I could have written it. Eventually. If you hadn't written it first, so clearly and concisely. It's been bothering me too. Separate but equal -- and not even equal -- notice the "MANY of the same rights as married couples." These politicians, however well-meaning they might be, are reminding me of those politicians who voted for civil rights in the 60s but still pandered to the notion of white superiority. "We're still better than they are, of course, but it's the compassionate thing to do, poor creatures."
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