An observation

[brooksmoses]

In a civilization with same-sex legal marriages, when a man refers to his "husband" and someone says, "he's not your 'husband', he's your 'partner'", it's clear that it's the second person who is being an antisocial ass, even if one might not like to admit it.

In a civilization with same-sex legal civil unions, when a man refers to his "husband" and someone says, "he's not your 'husband', he's your 'partner'", the argument that the first person is being pushy for insisting on "husband" is going to have a lot more popular traction.

This is one reason of many that they are not alike.

Comments

[anansi133.livejournal.com]

It took me a couple of reads to figure out the difference between those two paragraphs. And it's making me think about this a little harder than I was before.

Now that I think about it, the problem has several 'lobes' that may or may not be addressed with a single remedy.

Gay and Lesbian adults are not allowed to marry the people they would choose to marry. The reasons for this are no more valid than the rules prohibiting mixed-race marraiges.

The law of the church has been adopted in large parts as the law of the state. Besides just marraige, there's this whole thing of government offices being closed on Sundays and religious holidays. Does anyone really believe that this is really consistent with seperation of church and state?

Social custom cannot be controlled by religious law any better than it can be controlled by state law. Those who enforce the State's more unpopular laws know full well the difference between law and custom. So no matter what happens with state or religious law, there is still a powerful need to evolve as a society, by countless methods beyond church or state. I like to think that every time I talk about masturbation, it makes it just a little bit less likely that some insecure teenager someplace is going to murder a transgendered person.

No matter what people's turn-ons, I think sex positive activism is good for everybody.