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<< GOP Dissent v Bush on Outsourcing | Main | 911 Disabled up to 1000 Firefighters >> March 10, 2004Why Not?This guy thinks he's cute proposing that he be allowed to marry his grandmother. Why not? If his point is that there are many benefits that family members might be able to assure by marrying each other-- such as shared medical benefits and such-- that's exactly why gay couples want to become family members to one another. He points out the two reasons that blood relatives might be the only individuals who should be barred from marriage-- birth defect worries and attempts to evade estate taxes through community property transfers. The concern on incest could be dealt with simply by prohibiting sexual relations between close relatives, whether they are married or not -- it's not like the birth defect problem is prevented by withholding the marriage certificate. As for the fear of a family evading estate taxes, I just find it hard to believe that is a big motivating worry of the far right. For the rest of us, simple adjustments in community property laws involving family members would solve that problem. The basic point is that family arrangements ARE complicated and our present laws are probably too focused on nuclear family relationships. If the gay marriage debate forces us to discuss the need for extending marriage-like benefits to a range of other family relationships, that is no doubt all to the good. Posted by Nathan at March 10, 2004 07:23 PM Related posts:
Trackback PingsTrackBack URL for this entry: CommentsThe problem I have with this is the purely economic motive. He's using marriage as a loophole to save on insurance and taxes. Posted by: Lionel Levine at March 11, 2004 06:01 AM Although to be fair, Lionel, there's absolutely nothing to stop a man and a woman from being married for purely economic or tax loophole reasons right now. In fact, the "great tradition of marriage" that the right wing cites as the basis of Western civilization was all about property (i.e. women) and not about love at all. So this proposed marriage is more of a commentary on traditional, heterosexual marriage than on recent developments in homosexual marriage. Posted by: Nick at March 11, 2004 12:46 PM If that's what turns him on it's okay by me. Posted by: Nancy Irving at March 14, 2004 03:12 AM Post a comment
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