MUST read LTTE in my local paper about Gay Marriage. An excellent one to share!

[NoSheep]

http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/letters/story/1342349.html

Raleigh, NC News and Observer - Published: Mon, Dec. 22, 2008 12:30AM

I wish to applaud The N&O for printing Arnold H. Loewy's Dec. 1 Point of View "The logic of gay marriage."

Loewy well-articulated the conflict between marriage as a faith-based sacrament and marriage as a civil concept. I do not believe that there is any other event in religious life that brings this degree of legal rights. We have painfully learned that when citizens are entitled to different civil rights by law, discrimination and prejudice often follow.

Since we appear unable to grant the same legal rights provided by marriage to all our citizens, perhaps those rights should be eliminated. That would include marital benefits in the areas of consent and visitation, inheritance, children, taxes and insurance coverage. Then all would be truly equal in terms of their civil rights as citizens without a "redefining" of marriage. Faith institutions are free to continue to define marriage as each denomination sees fit.

I doubt there are many married citizens who would be supportive of equality on those terms.

In the eyes of the law, marriage is a contractual arrangement with legal rights and responsibilities, not a religious institution. How can those legal rights not belong to everyone?

Ann Nichols, Raleigh



:think:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. good argument

I especially liked the fact that Ann pointed out that marriage is the only religious rite that overlaps legal rights. Maybe explaining what it is like to NOT have those rights and threaten to take them away is the only way to get through to some people.

[NoSheep]

3. I think it is an excellent argument and one I can't believe I haven't heard before.

Makes me want to say: Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it!

[NoSheep]

2. Kicking so it doesn't die. Needs exposure (and copying to pass around!)

:kick:

[Iwillnevergiveup]

4. Ann Nichols

is spot on - especially in the question she asks at the end.

K&R

[yardwork]

5. Excellent. k&r

[sinkingfeeling]

6. As a single individual, I've often asked that. Often said that those who are unmarried are more

than discriminated against. Just try to book a tour as a single person!

[NoSheep]

7. Love your Bertrand Russell quote!

:thumbsup:

[tblue37]

12. Reminds me of a line from Yeats's "The Second Coming":

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity. (7-8)

Doesn't that sound exactly like our situation--especially the part about the best lacking all conviction?

[fortyfeetunder]

8. This deserves a Greatest Page R and a kick!

:kick:

[NoSheep]

9. I love an iron clad argument!

[jody]

10. I have read several LTTE proposing civil unions by government and marriage by religious groups.

It's interesting that many religious organizations have very diverse views on marriage, e.g. "Saudi court tells girl aged EIGHT she cannot divorce husband who is 50 years her senior" and "1629 For this reason (or for other reasons that render the marriage null and void) the Church, after an examination of the situation by the competent ecclesiastical tribunal, can declare the nullity of a marriage, i.e., that the marriage never existed.132 In this case the contracting parties are free to marry, provided the natural obligations of a previous union are discharged."

[NoSheep]

11. Kicking for the later crowd

:kick:

[closeupready]

13. Bravo, Ms. Nichols. You astound me with your eloquence.

:hi:

[LibDemAlways]

14. Excellent letter and really nails the central issue which is

lost amidst all the religious posturing. The states recognize marriage in civil terms, not as a religious institution. Gay marriage is a civil rights issue.

Those behind the anti Prop 8 campaign should have hit hard on this and didn't.