Be pragmatic and seize the initiative
11 December 2008
I was watching The Daily Show last night (Tuesday’s edition) and Mike Huckabee was on. Jon Stewart was debating the wisdom of banning same-sex marriage, and it kind of went back and forth but it was all very civilised.
And it got me thinking. People who oppose same-sex marriage tend (note I used the word ‘tend’) to be of the religious persuasion, so as a general rule, conservative branches of religion wouldn’t welcome homosexuals with open, unconditional arms anyway, married or not (no matter what they say). So why try and play their game? Their attitudes aren’t going to change.
In most countries (I expect), legal adults who are sane and sober can enter into legally-binding contracts. Getting married means there is an implicit contract between two people, and the rights and responsibilities are spelled out in state or national legislation. Is that right? Maybe I should have brushed up on this before I got married, but hey.
Anyway. so two people who live in a country or state that has banned same-sex marriage could enter into an explicit contract with each other, a contract that spells out the rights and responsibilities of their relationship, and what should happen if the relationship ends. I don’t think this would be that different from a prenuptial, and it’s just as good as a marriage contract.
The law would therefore recognise their connection to each other. Which is pretty much identical to marriage but with less baggage. And they would have to examine the terms of the contract carefully to make sure this is really what they want to do, which is a damned sight more considered than a drunken weekend in Vegas. Win-win!
Assuming this doesn’t already happen, a law firm could provide boilerplate contracts to make things easy for most same-sex couples to sign. I don’t get why it’s so important for homosexuals to gain the recognition of people who don’t want to recognise them as normal human beings who happen to play for a different team.
(I am not a lawyer, my experience is limited to two commercial law units at Uni. This is only my opinion.)
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The Daily Show is one of the few that I always try to catch. The Colbert Report had to sort of abandon the "Better Know A District" series because the Congress critters are too afraid of looking stupid.
There are a lot of things that are not traditionally covered in prenup's but are taken for granted in hetero marriages. It might work if one was made up for the slightly different laws in each state and was expressly designed to guarantee the same de facto rights as marriage.
There was a TV new magazine story about the US trying to deport foreign spouses after the native citizen partner died, when the INS had not done their evaluation to declare the marriage valid. I wonder how the US would view a prenuptial in a same sex contract where the same thing happened. I don't think there is any sort of a provision for the spouse becoming a citizen in a same sex relationship.
Comment by Terry — 11 December 2008 @ 7:59 pm
Maybe you could discuss this with Sir Cliff Richard,who apparently enjoys "keeping fans guessing" about his sexuality… pretty dumbass fans if you ask me!
Comment by Tutu — 13 December 2008 @ 8:53 am
Yah, It is completely beyond me to understand the guy mentality. I hope that they can get what they want to get, marriage status and all, but I'm too much of a non conformist. even though I'm married, I remember being devoutly monogamous while living together with a girl friend, the world was mine. It was bliss. and the argument that keeping guys from the marriage status jeopardizes no one. I'm at a loss..Doug
Comment by Doug — 14 December 2008 @ 6:42 pm
Terry, immigration status is the one thing that would always trip it up. I'd thought of that but since I'm no policy expert nor an expert in anything else, really, I have no solutions!
Tutu, I reckon he's completely sexless, actually!
Doug, precisely. It's no one's business but their own.
Comment by Andrea — 16 December 2008 @ 1:46 pm