Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Take the equal rights, don't worry about definitions
I'm proud to live in this state today. I haven't read over a detailed digest of today's NJ Supreme Court ruling; the document itself runs to 100 pages. On first look, it seems to be a very positive ruling, with Chief Justice Deborah Poritz dissenting that it doesn't go far enough. She's correct. The ruling is about equal rights but leaves the definition of the civil contract open. On the radio, one reaction from a lesbian was that her son still couldn't go to school & say her parents were married. This is sentiment. A lot of people in the LGBT community don't agree with me. But the general attitude in this country still prefers what is essentially a religious definition of marriage. Marriage is the button word that drives state after state to pass laws & constitutional amendments slamming the door on any kind of real equality. It could happen here.
The most important issue right now isn't the definition of marriage; It's about protecting the rights of a child's connection to parents, & especially to the surviving parent should one of them die. It's about survivor's benefits - which was spotlighted last summer in an Ocean County case where the Republican Board of Freeholders behaved shamefully. It's about a lot of injustices & inequalities. There are up to 1000 special rights & privileges given by marriage statutes. Now our legislators in Trenton, loathe to act on anything important until the courts order them to do so, will have to get off their asses & either amend the current statutes or write & pass a domestic partnership law at least on the order of the one Great Britain has. I would like to see this law passed with broad enough support to marginalize the reactionaries & homophobes we will be hearing from over the coming weeks.
No law can force churches & temples to change their doctrines; what isn't marriage to them now won't be marriage to them tomorrow. Hopefully, that will change the day after tomorrow. Meanwhile, there are Unitarian ministers willing to perform lovely wedding ceremonies. Florists, wedding planners, limousine services, DJs, caterers, & travel agencies compete fiercely for the business of every happy, hopeful couple. The Court says you can call it whatever you want. But I warn you, the religious right has been such a sleepy beast in New Jersey that one tends to forget it exists; I don't advise poking it too much. The most far-sighted strategy may be to give religionists the word "marriage" & let them gnaw on it futilely while civil rights identical to our state marriage laws are established beyond the possibility of repeal.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
The most important issue right now isn't the definition of marriage; It's about protecting the rights of a child's connection to parents, & especially to the surviving parent should one of them die. It's about survivor's benefits - which was spotlighted last summer in an Ocean County case where the Republican Board of Freeholders behaved shamefully. It's about a lot of injustices & inequalities. There are up to 1000 special rights & privileges given by marriage statutes. Now our legislators in Trenton, loathe to act on anything important until the courts order them to do so, will have to get off their asses & either amend the current statutes or write & pass a domestic partnership law at least on the order of the one Great Britain has. I would like to see this law passed with broad enough support to marginalize the reactionaries & homophobes we will be hearing from over the coming weeks.
No law can force churches & temples to change their doctrines; what isn't marriage to them now won't be marriage to them tomorrow. Hopefully, that will change the day after tomorrow. Meanwhile, there are Unitarian ministers willing to perform lovely wedding ceremonies. Florists, wedding planners, limousine services, DJs, caterers, & travel agencies compete fiercely for the business of every happy, hopeful couple. The Court says you can call it whatever you want. But I warn you, the religious right has been such a sleepy beast in New Jersey that one tends to forget it exists; I don't advise poking it too much. The most far-sighted strategy may be to give religionists the word "marriage" & let them gnaw on it futilely while civil rights identical to our state marriage laws are established beyond the possibility of repeal.
