[PD/TD] Re: [CS-FSLUG] Activist Republican Judge Says CA Marriage Law Unconstitutional

[Aaron Lehmann]

On Mon, Mar 21, 2005 at 01:58:41PM +0800, Leon Brooks wrote:
> On Monday 21 March 2005 06:56, Aaron Lehmann wrote:
> > Rather, civil unions should be available to all,
> 
> Yes.
> 
> > and should carry the rights traditionally associated with marriage.
> 
> No.
> 
> A civil union should carry _some_ of the rights of marriage; a civil 
> union is an arbitrary legal partnership, whereas a marriage is a very 
> specific relationship with a religious foundation. A marriage is a 
> partnership plus.

What rights whould you grant to a marriage that you would not grant to a
civil union?

> 
> > If I couple wishes to be married, they should go to the church
> > of their religion, and have it blessed by whatever god they
> > wish to have it blessed by.
> 
> Yes.
> 
> > This, of course, opens up a can of worms.  For example, gay adoption:
> > How can our government give preference to heterosexual couples over
> > homosexual couples with regard to adoption without hypocracy?
> 
> By distinguishing between civil union and marriage.
> 
> > And we are to give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God
> > what is God's.
> 
> Absolutely.
> 
> > I presume this means that it is God's place to dictate and
> > enforce holiness, and the government's place to enforce
> > fairness. 
> 
> Not exactly. The government's place is to prevent gross unfairness. The 
> government is a safety net, not mother and father. If it meddles with 
> absolutely everything in an attempt to go beyond safetynetism and 
> achieve some kind of absolute fairness (whose definition?) the result 
> would be a rolling nightmare. Always has been, and I see no reason why 
> it will not always be.

True, I suppose.  But if the government removes rights to a specific
subset of the population, they must have a very good reason why.  I
don't think, "It's the way we've always done it," cuts it.

I supose I can understand denying a unioned gay man the right to call
himself Mrs., but I'm not sure what other rights deserve withholding.

> 
> Cheers; Leon
> 
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