Marriage: A Conversation
So, SCOTUS is hearing cases about Prop 8 and DOMA this week. My companion and I have been married 23 years. My parents just celebrated 50 years of marriage. Does recognizing the civil rights of LGBTQ persons to marry whom they wish threaten my marriage or others? No. Think Progress has an interesting article that furthers the conversation about what marriage is. If marriage is only about having children then the folks in Texas should not have given my companion and I a license those years ago, but that was not something we were asked. We did not have to get a license to have children. We got a license to be recognized in a committed, life long relationship. We had a marriage ceremony in a religious setting of our choosing and asked family and friends to bless our relationship with their presence as our public acceptance of being willing to deal with each others baggage the rest of our lives. Here is a paragraph or two and a link.
Beyond Marriage Equality: What Can We Do To Fix Marriage?
By Zack Beauchamp posted from ThinkProgress Election on Mar 26, 2013Welcome to National Marriage Equality Week. After today’s Supreme Court hearing on the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, marriage equality has been the topic du jour, and will remain so after tomorrow’s companion hearing on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). I certainly hope the Court sees these discriminatory laws for what they are, but even if it doesn’t, the battle for marriage equality has been won: public opinion has swung strongly and, given the numbers among young Americans, likely irreversibly in favor of marriage equality.
If we assume that deep cultural forces are eroding the traditional, one-size fits marriage model based around norms like permanence and exclusivity, we should start talking about alternatives. That starts by imagining a way to preserve marriage’s social benefits while making it a more fundamentally freeing institution; developing a liberal vision of married life oriented around free choice and equal, mutually life-defining partnership. This move will require a shift in both government policy and social norms, but if we think the marriage crisis is, in fact, a crisis in need of addressing, developing an attractive vision of the institution is a necessary first step.
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