>Ah, logic by assertion. And by this logic, when a same-sex couple is turned away at the courthouse, they are actually being pushed into a relationship with someone else? Are they handing out brides and grooms there, or how does that work, exactly?<
Let me give you an example of the kind of thing we're looking at.
Jim and Dave have lived together for 20 years. Bought a house, supported each-other in successful careers, nursed each-other through illnesses: been, for all intents and purposes, a single entity. Their families both disapprove.
Jim becomes terminally ill. While he's in the hospital, Dave is at his bedside (much like you would be for your wife).
At the same time, Jim's family sweeps in. Changes the locks on the house (which was in Jim's name), and basically takes everything the two of them had. Dave's legal recourse is nil, as they don't enjoy the same legal protection a married couple does.
Yes, they COULD have spent thousands of dollars, drawing up wills and suchlike. To get the same protections Spoon and I got for $65 at the courthouse.
That's just one example of the inequality, Fistful. There have been same-sex partners barred from being at their partners bedside in the hospital, numerous examples of the above story, and other legal entanglements... all of which would have been avoided if they had that protection.
So... let the government handle the legal contract issue, make it between any two or more consenting adults (with no other qualifiers), and let the churches handle the word "marriage"
There is so much logic fail and category error, I'd compare it to the Underpants Gnomes path to wealth, but I fear dissing the shoddy logic of diminutive demi-humans after the last Monster Hunter book I read.
But, time is short, so I'll just hit one teensy myth used as a truncheon by the :
At the same time, Jim's family sweeps in. Changes the locks on the house (which was in Jim's name), and basically takes everything the two of them had. Dave's legal recourse is nil, as they don't enjoy the same legal protection a married couple does.
Yes, they COULD have spent thousands of dollars...
"Dave" is a nitwit. His nitwittery is of epic proportions.
It would not cost thousands of dollars to rectify his situation, just a mere $45:
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"Dave" doesn't need to overturn millenia of social practice and mores, he just needs to have an IQ greater than his shoe size (and $45). Or, maybe the wisdom to understand that if "Jim," his [Princess_Bride]twue wuv[/Princess_Bride], has had 20 years to square away his affairs but did not include Dave in the arrangements,
maybe Jim doesn't want Dave to get his stuff and wants his real family to dispose of his material existence. That is the price anyone would likely pay for hitching one's wagon to a thoughtless bounder for two decades.
Whoops, my bad. All "Dave" would need is
$35 from nolo for th esame product:
http://www.nolo.com/products/quicken-willmaker-plus-WQP.html
That tool worked for my wife & I. My FIL, retired lawyer-critter, gave the docs the thumbs-up.