hey Flip
thanks for asking, i can hope i can answer some of these for you,
Why would Congress or any one else want to ban Gay marriages in the first place, other than for conservative religious reasons, cultural bias or fear of supposed social decay and assumed loss of votes?
i believe you answered this yourself, it is conservative moral values and fear of the unknown, it is backwoods thinking in the part of the house and senate and the fear behind it is fueled by prejudice. sad but true
What are the intrinsic and, if at all, financial reasons why Gay’s would want to be recognized as being married if some choose to remain childless, other than giving a reason such as, ‘men and women get to be…so do we’?
why do straight people get married? and do all married couples have children?
love tends to be the underlying factor of most happy marriages,
not all marriages are done so for financial gain,
What is meant by homosexual marriages/civil unions (specifically civil unions? Why the connection between the two terms?What is meant by domestic partner benefits?
The Civil Union Law: In 2000, the Vermont legislature passed a groundbreaking law which created a new marital status called "civil union" for same-sex couples and provided all state law benefits of marriage to couples joined in civil union.
{check out www.vtfreetomarry.org. for more info}
the reversal of this law as is the plan if congress has its way, would take these rights away from these couples and prevent other states from joining in and doing the same as vermont did 2 years ago,
it would also prevent employers and insurance companies from providing coverage to same sex couples in their benefit plans,
if it is ratified it can affect hetero couples as well, who choose not to marry
an example mentioned at ACLU is state laws protecting unmarried elderly couples who refrain from marrying in order to hold on to their pensions,
and even state laws allowing a person, in the absence of a spouse, to oppose the autopsy of a close friend because of the deceased person's religious beliefs
from my own personal standpoint:
suzi and i have been living together for about a year now,
as the law currently stands, unless we live together for 5 years and become 'common law' we are not recognized as a couple by law,
if this new bill takes place we would not be recognized as common law even if we did live together for the next 50 years,
thus abolishing any rights suzi would have over my last requests if i were to die, unless i specifically wrote it down in a will
Is there a potential governmental financial benefit, i.e. tax deductions for Gay married partners who will be without the responsibility or the expense of having to raise children?Are there significant differences of perspective between Gay’s who have the responsibility of raising children and Gay’s without the responsibility of raising children that want to marry and the heterosexual marriages that raise children and those you choose to remain childless?
as far as children are concerned one does not need to be married to have a child, nor should someone get married because they are expecting one,
at the moment suzi and i choose not to have kids because we have plans for our future, that is a personal decision that works for us as a straight couple and it is a choice that gay couples should have too, if we change our mind in the future then we cross the bridge when we get there. no one should be penalized or rewarded for having kids the joy of having a family is reward and punishment enough for giving birth
what it comes down to is this:
when this nation was founded it was founded with the premise of seperation of church and state as to avoid the opression felt in the motherland. if the churches are progressive enough to accept same sex matrimony then it is the churches choice and not the government,
marriage is a civil liberty and it is a choice 2 individuals make based on their feelings toward each other regardless of their sexual orientation
what they are proposing with this bill ALSO includes a future ammendment to the constitution
this is the direction this legislation is going, they want to ammend the constitution to only allow heterosexual marriages to exist,
if this civil right is taken it is only a step away before the government starts telling us who people can marry and who they can't
dc
"we do not see the world as it is,
we see the world as we are. . ." Anais Nin
