Chamblee54

This is a repost .Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”
Some court in California is hearing appeals about a Prop. 8 lawsuit. Some say marriage was invented by G-d, but it is heavily regulated by the state. Prop. 8 was a reaction to a court ruling to a lawsuit, about a law. A voters initiative reversed the court ruling, prompting another lawsuit, which is in the appeals phase now. It can be complicated.
In other news, Father Tony renovated the kitchen to his Manhattan apartment. Apparently, his marriage survived. FT is a treasure. He wrote once about the ins and outs of the Catholic Church , his one time employer.
This marriage thing is getting complicated. Father Tony has a story posted today. FT is a retired employee of the state of Connecticut. His buddy of 25 years is registered as his domestic partner, and receives benefits as a result. Recently, same sex marriage became legal up there. It seems that the benefits deal was a union negotiated thing. This is some of the fine print:
A couple shall be eligible for domestic partner status only if the couple is unable to marry in Connecticut because Connecticut’s marriage provision’s distinguish between same sex and opposite sex couples. Should eligibility to marry in Connecticut no longer be precluded on the basis of this distinction, the following provision shall cease to be effective on that date, except that coverage for couples having already achieved domestic partner status under the terms of this provision shall cease one year from that date
In other words, if the partner of FT wants to keep the pension, they MUST get married.
There was a comment somewhere recently….maybe it was Peach Pundit, and please don’t ask for a link…but the commenter was discussing domestic partner benefits. The commenter made a point that this really wasn’t a bad idea, but that maybe there should be a live in requirement…say two years…of the couple being a declared d.p. item, before the partner would be eligible for benefits.
PG saw this, and thought that this would be a good idea for old fashioned marriage as well. Many marriages are more business arrangements than love matches. The shotgun has been replaced with a claims form. If a man gets his sweetie in the family way, he often has to marry her to get insurance, to cover the bundle of joy. There are many other “violations of the sanctity of traditional marriage”.
And then PG realized why this is not going to happen, and one more reason why people don’t like gay marriage. There are all sorts of legal goodies for a straight married couple. The idea that this might be compromised, by equal legal goodies for same sex couples, is distressing.