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What do you mean by "end[ing] marriage as a state function"?
Do you mean simply eliminating it, thereby eliminating the 1000+ legal rights conferred by it (such as spousal immigration visas, being allowed to live with your spouse in military base housing, having the right to sue for wrongful death in a court of law should someone negligently or intentionally kill your spouse, your spouse assuming the legal right of making emergency medical decisions on your behalf, your spouse automatically inheriting you assets if you die without a will, etc.)
Or do you mean we should simply rename civil marriage something else?
Yes. End any special treatment of anyone.
If you want a legal contract saying this person can make medical decisions and enter your hospital room. You are free to enter into such a legal agreement all day long.
sure it can. any LEGAL document can as long as what is stated is in the confines of the law.
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Originally Posted by hammertime33
A contract can't create many of the legal rights provided by a civil marriage (see post #7 for several examples). Those are legal rights only a government can confer.
sure it can. any LEGAL document can as long as what is stated is in the confines of the law.
No it can't.
A legal contract can't confer upon me the right to sue for wrongful death in a court of law. A legal contract can't confer upon me the right to sponsor a person for an immigration visa. A legal contract can't confer upon me the right to live with a military member in base housing and shop at the commissary.
Seriously? You give me an article about an English guy threatening to sue the STATE CHURCH of England - you know, where there is no separation between Church and State.
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I don't care if gay people get married too much, but it's the mentality of the gay activsts that I have a problem with. It's' ' if you disagree with us prepare to be destroyed' '.
Why should I afford respect to somebody's "disagreement" with an inherent characteristic of me and be gracious when he seeks to deny me equal treatment under the law because of it? Especially when it's accompanied with statements like this: "Your perversion is an abomination to God. If we can't stop you from polluting society with your perversions, God certainly will." (Bideshi - post 34 of this thread).
Religion in marriage is an add-on, not an intrinsic function of the marriage itself. It's only the Christian right who has tried to conflate the two issues with their gay panic.
Regardless of what anyone believes regarding the origin of marriage, it is still far too intertwined with religion. The best move would be for the government to get out of the marriage business.
Now for me, look back on this forum on any marriage debate I've been in. I always say that marriage should just be ended as a state institution.
But if you didn't want to do that, how do you tell the difference between someone who is authentic libertarian on marriage, and those who do that as a means to hide their fear of homosexuals?
Maybe you are, maybe you're not.
What I can tell you is this: I'm sixty years old, and I've been engaged with and paid close attention to politics and political discourse for more than forty years.
Maybe there were obscure little guys writing in journals of political theory for all that time who wrote about how the government should get out of the marriage business, but it's a very funny thing. I never heard a peep out of any of them until getting government out of the marriage business was their answer to letting same-sex couples marry.
Coincidence? I think not.
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