Okay…I can’t stand it any longer.
Marriage is (pay attention) a cultural and religious institution. Government has no business whatsoever being involved. One way or another.
What is happening right now in Massachusetts and San Francisco is Gay Activism. Nothing more. And the reason for this has nothing to do with “lasting commitment to someone I love.” That can be done, and has been throughout recorded time, without a government agency being involved in any way.
What is at stake here is whether people who choose an alternative to traditional marriage can force employers to offer benefits to a life partner. There are many employers who do this already. But there are many more that don’t. If you are gay and want those benefits, you are free to seek employment with someone who does. That it what freedom is all about. Employers are free to offer benefits–or not. That is their freedom at work.
But, if you like your job and don’t want to leave to find an employer who provides such benefits, what do you do?
I KNOW! I KNOW!
You get the government to take away that employer’s rights.
This is simply one more issue in the realm of trying to exercise non-existent rights . Do they have a right to get married? No. Do they have the freedom to consider themselves married? Yes.
I am heterosexual and don’t have a right to get married. But I have the freedom to do it, and our culture concurs.
When you ask government to control culture, you are advocating fascism.
Class dismissed.
here i wonder. have we been using the state to impose our will? maybe the state shouldn’t be marrying people. when the preacher says, “By the power vested in me by God and the state of New Jersey, I thee wed.” perhaps it is the good people of the state of New Jersey that need to shut up and leave God to do the work.
i really do not know tonight, what do you think. i was married in the state of Colorado, but am there only a few days a year. that doesn’t make me married only a few days a year. in fact to me Colorado has only nostalgic meaning in my marriage. there is something a lot bigger than Colorado at the core here.
p.s. i really like your new comment message about an email address. can i steal it? it is what i meant when i wrote what i did.
Comment by rammer — February 24, 2004 @ 8:58 pm
While I agree with you that perhaps the State has no business being in the marriage license business, the State is in that business.
The rights and responsibilities of marriage are not available to gay people. This is more about public benefits like the right to inherit social security benefits, the right to visit in the hospital, and the right to immigrate, than any claim on employers.
Comment by alan — January 6, 2005 @ 5:38 am