Am I getting this right (re. gay marriages)

[KDLarsen]

I've been following the debate on & off from this open-minded country, where Gays & Lesbians for quite a while have been permitted to get married & recieve the same basic rights as everyone else, and I was wondering if I'm getting this right:

For most gays & lesbians, the whole marriage deal is as much about expressing their love to their partner, as it is to secure each other in case of their partners untimely death? Ie. basically being able to recieve the deceased partners pension etc.

I was zapping past a re-run of Ricki Lake (yes, I was bored), where they had this topic on, and a woman there had lost her partner. And because of the current laws, which would not recognize her as her partner, the deceased womans pension etc. went to the deceased parents, while the surviving partner was left behind with her various loan payments etc.

[BlueEyedSon]

1. I suppose property in case of death, health insurance, etc

[Lex]

2. Gay people want to get married for pretty much the same reasons

.
anyone else wants to get married.

The government does confer legal benefits on people who are married, and not allowing gays or lesbians to get married deprives them of these benefits.

On the order of 1,400 legal rights are conferred upon married couples in the U.S. Typically these are composed of about 400 state benefits and over 1,000 federal benefits. Among them are the rights to:

joint parenting;
joint adoption;
joint foster care, custody, and visitation (including non-biological parents);
status as next-of-kin for hospital visits and medical decisions where one partner is too ill to be competent;
joint insurance policies for home, auto and health;
dissolution and divorce protections such as community property and child support;
immigration and residency for partners from other countries;
inheritance automatically in the absence of a will;
joint leases with automatic renewal rights in the event one partner dies or leaves the house or apartment;
inheritance of jointly-owned real and personal property through the right of survivorship (which avoids the time and expense and taxes in probate);
benefits such as annuities, pension plans, Social Security, and Medicare;
spousal exemptions to property tax increases upon the death of one partner who is a co-owner of the home;
veterans' discounts on medical care, education, and home loans; joint filing of tax returns;
joint filing of customs claims when traveling;
wrongful death benefits for a surviving partner and children;
bereavement or sick leave to care for a partner or child;
decision-making power with respect to whether a deceased partner will be cremated or not and where to bury him or her;
crime victims' recovery benefits;
loss of consortium tort benefits;
domestic violence protection orders;
judicial protections and evidentiary immunity;
and more....

Most of these legal and economic benefits cannot be privately arranged or contracted for. For example, absent a legal (or civil) marriage, there is no guaranteed joint responsibility to the partner and to third parties (including children) in such areas as child support, debts to creditors, taxes, etc. In addition, private employers and institutions often give other economic privileges and other benefits (special rates or memberships) only to married couples. And, of course, when people cannot marry, they are denied all the emotional and social benefits and responsibilities of marriage as well.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/mar_bene.htm

[KDLarsen]

4. Thanks!

.. I'll check out the link ASAP, looks like an interesting read.

[Bertha Venation]

3. Here's your answer, put simply:

Why do straight people get married?

For all those reasons, minus the "shotgun weddings" and marriages of "convenience," so do we.

Mrs. V. and I are already married, in our hearts, in our families' and friends' eyes, and before God.

I don't need a legal marriage license to prove anything.

And I don't want a legal marriage license because I want or need the benefits that will fall to me upon Mrs. V.'s death.

I want and need a legal marriage license because right now we are less than equal in the eyes of the government whose Declaration of Independence has this as its very first line: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

[Cannikin]

6. I luvs me some Bertha!

She always knows what to say, and it makes me smile.:puffpiece:

[Bertha Venation]

8. hey, Cannikin:

This :toast:'s for you :D

[Cerridwen]

5. What's been posted so far is part of it: the "gaining" of

legal "rights" the rest of us take for granted. But there's another angle as well.

It would also become more difficult to use a person's sexual orientation against them. For example:

2 women in 20 year relationship. 1 has child and is the natural parent. natural mother dies. her family takes the child from the other woman though she may have been parent for up to 14, 15 years.

partner of same sex relationship is being kept alive through "extraordinary measures" other partner knows ill partner would prefer to die with dignity. ill partner's family calls the shots and keeps ill partner alive on machines indefinately.

there are plenty of other examples, but you get the idea.

[K-W]

7. Its about equal rights.

The state provides the service of liscensing marriages and it creates a legal status that is different than two single people, it affords them certain benefits and rights. The issue is unique in that people do not have equal access to it.