GLBT

 

So, how many federal and state benefits, protections and responsibilities are married couples automatically granted when married (benefits, protections and responsibilities not available to gay couples, including, on the Federal level, those legally married in Massachusetts)? According to the federal government's General Accounting Office, there are 1,049.

 

- Access to Social Security after spouse's death

- Access to health insurance through spouse's workplace

- The right to custody of children after divorce

- Visitation rights for non-biological children

- Joint parenting rights, such as access to children's school records

- Bereavement leaves after death of spouse

- Burial determination after death of spouse

- Domestic violence intervention

- Sick leave to care for spouse or non-biological child

- Legal validation of a long-term relationship

- Ability to live in neighborhoods deemed "families only"

- Access to life insurance in ...

 

Let me further expand on my thoughts about marriage equality and why that is actually good for the institution of marriage as opposed to destroying it.

 

In reading Gay Marriage by Jonathan Rauch, Mr. Rauch points outs some thoughts I have not considered despite my active interest in this subject.

 

He first talks about marriage in general and what it is. Marriage is more then a contract between two people. Marriage is a contract known by and promoted by a community. The community knows what the marriage contract entails. They know it entails a serious commitment between two people, a commitment that not only has its blessings and rewards, but also has its disappointments and burdens.

 

The blessings and rewards include having a partner who will be there for you always, someone you can always count on ...

 

I'm sure one of the most galling things to religious extremists is the ever increasing "coming out" of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) people. Many religious extremists may sincerely believe, naively and ignorantly, that LGBT people are as they are by sinful choice and that they should hide their shame in their closet. But we who are LGBT know we are who we are, not because of choice, but because we simply are. Religious extremists and even many mainstream people will simply have to deal with our existence.

 

Like any disparaged minority, we suffer from stereotyping, which is why so many LGBT people successfully can remain closeted. I have many dear male gay friends who are stereotypically gay men, swishy, loose wrists, lisps, cannot throw a baseball if their lives depend on it. I also have many dear female ...

 

The year 2000 saw something unprecedented in American government when the state of Vermont implemented a new law, a civil union law, which would allow gay couples to have the trappings of marriage without actually being married. Governor Howard Dean, personally opposed to marriage for gay people, signed this compromise bill.

 

The events in Vermont were preceded by events in Hawaii and Alaska nearly a decade earlier. In the early 1990s the Hawaii state supreme court ruled it was unconstitutional to not allow gay couples to get married. They ordered Hawaii to implement marriage equality for gays. The people of Hawaii were not ready for this and responded by passing a state constitutional amendment against marriage equality for gay people. Shortly thereafter a similar thing happened in Alaska.

 

Vermont also was ordered by their state supreme court to ...

 

Homosexuals are an abomination before God! Homosexuals have an agenda to destroy society, to destroy marriage, to destroy the family! Homosexuals are nothing more then drugged out sex crazed hedonists only interested in their own pleasure. Homosexuals choose to live a homosexual lifestyle. God showed his wrath toward homosexuals in no uncertain terms in Sodom and Gomorrah. Homosexuals will be damned for all eternity if they do not repent! We must protect our children from those evil molesting homosexuals!

 

If one repeats lies often enough, it becomes truth. Homophobes can make the same argument. We humans have many needs, physical, mental, emotional, even spiritual. One deep need is to be loved, to be accepted, to be wanted and needed. When society has determined a certain way of life needed to perpetuate itself, for whatever reason, it will create powerful ...