the true dangers of gay marriage

Separate but equal.

We’ve all heard the above phrase, and for many it summons forth an image of a “White Only” water fountain, and a “Colored Only” fountain 50 feet away. There are certainly those who may still argue that “separate but equal” works, but I doubt many of them are proponents of gay marriage today, which is fundamentally the same concept.

Gay marriage, by means of “civil unions” or “domestic partnerships” is harmful to the spirit of equality unless it is applied universally to gay and straight couples alike. What about committed partnerships between a man and two women? A woman and two bisexual men? Will they need to wait another sixty years for their “separate but equal” union?

Why is a social contract — that’s what marriage is at its core — being limited in number and gender by the government? Why is it ever? Why, to legislate morality, of course. The people who want to limit marriage to one man and one woman (either directly or by supporting “separate but equal” options) are the same people who want to prevent you from smoking marijuana or paying that nice Korean masseuse $20 for a happy ending.

The solution, as with the “drug war” and taxes, is abolition. Strip marriage from the tax code and let social institutions handle social contracts. Strip marriage from legal documents and let the association be known for what it is — a contract between two (or more) people to share responsibility of and for assets, including each others lives.

Stories like this in The Olympian disgust me:

Pond suffered the aneurysm just before the R Family Vacations cruise ship left Miami for the Bahamas in February, Langbehn said. After Pond was taken to the emergency room, Langbehn said she was informed by a social worker that they were in an “anti-gay state” and that they needed legal paperwork before Langbehn could see Pond.

Even after a friend in Olympia faxed the legal documents that showed that Pond had authorized Langbehn to make medical decisions for her, Langbehn said she wasn’t invited to be with her partner or told anything about her condition

To what end was she prevented from being at her dying partner’s bedside? What was gained?