Hey, correct me if i'm wrong here, but wasn't Prop 8 just about marriage? i thought the Civil Union thing was going to be accepted as a legally binding contract between two people...
I agree that prop 8 says more about Californian's definition of the English word "marriage" than it does about their feelings about homosexuality or homosexuals. The don't accept that the word includes gay unions. I think Californians would be willing to accept equal "domestic partnership", they just reject the use of the word marriage. That said, there is a difference between "domestic partnership" and "marriage". Two things come to mind. 1)Transportability: If a couple is married in California and moves to another state, their California marriage is valid in the other state. The "full faith and credence" clause of the Constitution says so. If the other state lacks a domestic partnership law, that is not transportable. Even if another state does have a gay marriage law, there isn't case law to determine if state X's "domestic partnership" is the same as state Y's "civil union" and, therefore, transportable to state Y. Domestic partners' legal status as a couple is bound by state lines. 2) Legal confidentiality. (Lawyers, please forgive my incompleteness) Testimony about what is said between a married couple is not admissible in court. A wife can forbid her husband from testifying against her. (With some exceptions, e.g. domestic violence.) I don't know if the same confidentiality applies to domestic partners in a state court. I suppose it would depend on the statute establishing domestic partnerships. It also would not transport to other states or apply to federal cases. 3)Can domestic partners file joint fed. income tax? I don't think so. "The legal state of domestic partnership is the same as marriage" is just not true.
You're correct about the 'marriage' word and it's definition: Marriage is the union of a man and a woman in the eyes of God, and goes beyond the earthly covenant, as a divine picture of the relationship between Christ and His Bride, the Church. It's a spiritual representation of our relationship with God. A Civil Union would be the same contract (minus the church, God, Jesus, and gender requirements) ~ it just wouldn't be lumped in with what the existing Christian definition, and the ceremony wouldn't be performed in a church, out of respect for God and His Word, and what He has to say about it. Instead of "married," what would be bad about "unified?" Perhaps something a bit more chic ~ "fused?" Maybe "Inc'ed?" "Are you going to Jim and Stan's Incorporation?" or "Yep, we got Inc'ed!" And for mail? Last name & last name, Inc. :rofl:
Come to think of it, i don't see why folks couldn't have a lawyer draw up a contract, stipulating all of the legal mumbo-jumbo that is contained in a marriage contract, sign it and be, well, Inc'ed! :rofl: And i don't see how the Churches, nor the Law of the Land, could do anything to stop folks from entering into contracts with each other. Just a thought...
Republicans lay awake at night, thinking in detail about what sweaty gay people do in their beds, picturing it all in graphic detail... while the frustrated spouse wonders about the former's dysfunction. Yup, that gay marriage thing sure is a marriage-wrecker, alright.
This gay guy goes for his second exam by his proctologist, who's doing the digital prostate routine. However the good doctor is surprised to pull out three red roses and a crumpled, tightly wadded card from his patient's rectum, complete with stems and thorns. Displaying them to his admiring patient, he demands an explanation. "Well darling," the patient says. "aren't you even going to read the card?"
Think about this, if gay marriage is such a threat to heterosexual marriage then why does Massachusetts, the state who has had gay marriage legalized for the longest time, have one of the lowest divorce rates in the nation? Tim and Steve next door and Annie and Chrissie across the street should be driving Carol and Mike's marriage into the ground, but they're still going strong it seems.
"Man may be defined as an animal that can get used to anything" -- Dostoyefski. That doesn't mean that the bullshit all around him that he has to get used to is good, or right. So, happy girl (la fille feliz), keep eating pussy if you're not enough of a woman to score cock, just don't advertise it to your neighbors. They'd really rather not know. As they say in the American military today, don't ask, don't tell.
Errr, you mean Dostoyevsky. Unless you're quoting some unknown person named "Dostoyefski" or course. If you choose to turn a blind eye to your neighbours, then that is your choice.
I chose a phonetic spelling. Any transliteration from Cyrillic to Roman characters is a matter of choice. Are you suggesting that 'sky' is better than 'ski'? Defend your decision. The pronounciation is long E as in 'ski', not long I as in 'fly'. The transliterations offered for Достое́вский by Wikipedia are as follows: Dostoyevsky, Dostoevsky, Dostoievsky, Dostojevskij, Dostoevski or Dostoevskii. In fact, the Cyrillic character 'B' does translate to 'V', not 'F', so that is a mistake. Wikipedia offers the phonetic spelling 'dəstɐˈjɛfskʲɪj', so I wouldn't call it a big mistake. And yes, I turn a blind eye to my neighbors whenever possible. They're not all that good looking. Now, don't you have anything better to do with your time?
I moderate these here forums. I have to read everything if I want to make well with my time. I have read Dostoyevsky and knew the cyrillic B character is a V sound. I can write phonetically. I just thought it was cute to quote someone and mispell their name.
Exactly when civil unions are treated the same as marriages by the IRS, then I would think none of us would worry what they were called. Each partner in the civil union must file a return with the IRS as though they are single. Civil union couples are not permitted to file federal income taxes as married, either jointly or separately, because the federal government does not recognize the union as a legal marriage