--- WD <mister.wd at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The state should mandate that a number of rights
> automatically rest in
> a specific kind of individual for administrative
> reasons:
>
> You don't want to force non-specialists to have to
> interpret
> contractual language. For example, a landlord might
> know damn well
> that he can't discriminate based on marital status,
> but what if a
> prospective tenant has a "comprehensive contract"
> with another person?
> Or, in a situation where a doctor needs to ask
> permission to, say,
> harvest organs, who does s/he need to consult in the
> next 20 minutes?
> Is every hospital going to need a lawyer in the
> emergency room to
> analyze "comprehensive contracts"? On a related
> note, there are
> innumerable statutes and regulations that refer to,
> or implicate, the
> rights of spouses. Figuring out how these intersect
> with different
> "comprehensive contracts" would be a long-lasting
> legal and
> bureaucratic nightmare.
>
[WS:] Do not forget the entitlements from third parties that married individuals incur. For example, if one is married to a partner of the opposite sex, he/she is entitled to social security, health insurance, retirement etc. earned by the partner. If however, the partner is of the same sex, no such entitlement exists (thanks to DOMA signed by Clinton in 1996), unless a private third party voluntarily agrees to it (e.g. if an employer offers benefits to same sex couples).
One more thing, it is the homophobes who want government to regulate marriage by restricting it to thier narrow-minded definition. Our side merely wants that government gives it the same protection as any other contractual relation among individuals. The concept of government "regulating" what is marriage by extendit it to same sex couples is a typical right wing gimmick of protraying their fascist ideology as "natural" or the "will of the people" whereas that of the opposing side - as "government imposed."
Was it Marx who said that bourgeois political economy is like religion - ours is god-given, everyone else's is man-made? Right wing and family values trolls use that old canard very effectively.
Wojtek