Reply #55: I absolutely agree...champ. [View All]

[zulchzulu]

Seriously, I absolutely understand that gay marriage... same sex marriage... equal marriage... is exactly what this country needs... yesterday!

But... do we continue to fight for it (I do as a heterosexual helping with grassroots efforts, I really do...) and not even get past getting civil unions and domestic partnerships being legal?

For example, I have a brother who is gay and has been in a long relationship. He almost got murdered in a hate crime in Puerto Rico less than a month ago... abduction, robbery, pistol-whipped, left for dead in a field... he's missing some teeth and has some head wounds (a few dozen stitches on the back of his skull) but is otherwise doing well. He and his partner have property there in P.R. and some other locations. They've shared expenses on fixing up the places. What bothers me and him is that his partner would not be able to visit him in the hospital and worse, if he had passed, the property would go to the state or be in a state of legalistic limbo.

Add that I have helped my brother engage with other family members on his preference and it helped me decide to work on gay/queer issues on a number of efforts.

What do we do about people like my brother NOW? Do we tell him to wait for a generation to die off before we get gay marriage?