Friday, April 08, 2005
Concerning Gay Marraige
This debate is stupid.
All of the bills put to state and federal governing bodies either for or against it are stupid.
Quite frankly the government should just get out of the marraige business altogether.
The government (at all levels) should simply allow you to make a legal partnership, similar to what you can do now for any business but one that would include rights for things like getting past HIPA restrictions (but only in so much as spouses can do now). If government removed the stupid taxation differences between married and non-married peoples and allowed people to have a legal partnership for things like corporate benefits packages, privacy issues, co-habitation, shared income tax returns, or whatever else comes along with marraige then they could just get out of the marraige business altogether.
If people want the government benefits of being "coupled" or "partnered" then they can go through the paperwork and have those benefits. Of course this should be restricted only to parties of legal adult age (aren't all contracts limited to that?) and should be limited to only one "partner" at a time. The one partner at a time is actually a restriction that I, personally, see as more of a pragmatic thing than one of not wanting bigotry. I don't care how many consenting adults do whatever they want with each other, but having multiple "partners" in this legal sense would be overly burdonsome on the governmental agencies. I can't imagine the changes that just the IRS would have to go through to accomodate multiple "partners", no less the other agencies such as military benefits and such. So, keep it simple, one partner at a time.
If people want to be "married" then let them go to their religious organization, whatever that may be, and do so. It would carry no weight with the government, so the government partnership would have to be done as well if they wanted to do things like file joint tax returns, but this would allow the whole stupid arguement to be done with.
Seperate the church and state, have a legal partnership for the state and marraige for the church... never the twain shall meet. Simple as that, no more arguement over what any given deity may or may not want.
All of the bills put to state and federal governing bodies either for or against it are stupid.
Quite frankly the government should just get out of the marraige business altogether.
The government (at all levels) should simply allow you to make a legal partnership, similar to what you can do now for any business but one that would include rights for things like getting past HIPA restrictions (but only in so much as spouses can do now). If government removed the stupid taxation differences between married and non-married peoples and allowed people to have a legal partnership for things like corporate benefits packages, privacy issues, co-habitation, shared income tax returns, or whatever else comes along with marraige then they could just get out of the marraige business altogether.
If people want the government benefits of being "coupled" or "partnered" then they can go through the paperwork and have those benefits. Of course this should be restricted only to parties of legal adult age (aren't all contracts limited to that?) and should be limited to only one "partner" at a time. The one partner at a time is actually a restriction that I, personally, see as more of a pragmatic thing than one of not wanting bigotry. I don't care how many consenting adults do whatever they want with each other, but having multiple "partners" in this legal sense would be overly burdonsome on the governmental agencies. I can't imagine the changes that just the IRS would have to go through to accomodate multiple "partners", no less the other agencies such as military benefits and such. So, keep it simple, one partner at a time.
If people want to be "married" then let them go to their religious organization, whatever that may be, and do so. It would carry no weight with the government, so the government partnership would have to be done as well if they wanted to do things like file joint tax returns, but this would allow the whole stupid arguement to be done with.
Seperate the church and state, have a legal partnership for the state and marraige for the church... never the twain shall meet. Simple as that, no more arguement over what any given deity may or may not want.
