Adder brought up tax breaks and someone replied to me privately and said, hospital visitation and life support wishes for terminally ill partners.
I am trying to understand the reality in all of this so I can discuss it intelligently. I think the hospital issue can be taken care of legally with joint powers of attorney. I'm not a tax professional, but it seems that anyone who is civilly contracted can file jointly and it real estate is held as tenants in common the interest deductions would be treated the same as what my wife and I expect. If I am wrong I'd like to know.
It seems the only point of this argument is to make a mockery of the word 'marriage' and render it meaningless. If that is the case (even partially), I find it even more disgusting because in the liberal community which is where most gays seem to identify, not getting married is possibly more common than tying the knot.
I would think that HIPPA handles all hospital issues. Lord knows I have to sign my life away just to give permission for my wife to be advised of my conditions.
Marriage is ONLY between a man and a woman. It has ALWAYS been so. To say it now encompasses anything else does indeed render the word and the institution meaningless as the article points out.
Eh... same-sex couples cannot file their Federal taxes jointly under any circumstances. See DOMA.
I know a couple of gay guys who would say “forget marriage, just let me sponsor my non-U.S. partner for permanent residency.” That’s a huge issue for people in my professional circle (law), which is pretty international. That issue also wins a lot of people over for favoring same-sex marriage, when they see their friends either staying separated or moving to Europe because of it.
All those objections are civil (secular) matters and can be handled by new laws or by modifying existing ones. They certainly don’t need to be managed by completely redefining one of society’s most stable, critical, and enduring institutions. They’re nothing but a smokescreen, and the ultimate answer is to amend the Constitution to define marriage once and for all as the union between one man and one woman. Period.
So if you lived in Washington State and you had a civil union (everything but marriage) then that somehow prevented hospital visitation and life support wishes?
Life support wishes can be taken care of through advanced directives and the like (legal instruments). As far as I’m concerned, a private hospital should be allowed to set its own policy on visitation rules. Don’t like them, go to a different hospital.