I personally am super happy to see that NY has finally legalized gay marriage. It's a great move.
However, I can't help but feel that a lot of comments from people about how "it means nothing unless the federal government recognizes it" are so frustrating. You know why?
The federal government should have no involvement in who you marry. I honestly wish they'd just get out of it, and let the states do their thing. I don't think the government should be able to tell someone they can't marry their best friend (regardless of gender). It's one thing on a state level - that, at least, people have more control over, and it's easier to solve if your state won't recognize it (as inconvenient and sucky as moving is, if you'd do it for a great job, it'd be worth it if marriage was important enough).
One of the things that REALLY made me happy is that there were Republicans pushing for this. Roy McDonald won me over for not only being sensible, but also for saying "fuck". Made my day! It's not just Democrats or Libertarians that understand the importance of freedom of marriage. I just am hoping more Republicans get the courage to stand up for what they really believe, even if they only agree with it because they don't give a crap either way!
Frankly, I don't think a modern government ought to be involved in marriage anyway, and any two consenting adults should be able to contractually obligate themselves to each other for the purposes of inheritance, custody, and insurance. Folks who are churched ought to, in my opinion, take marriage up with their church. Governments only got involved in marriage to begin with because they were too deep into thinking they were churches.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, I got a grin out of Roy McDonald's quote, too. Just goes to show that you can't say "all [fill in the blank, such as Republicans] believe [fill in the blank, such as are homophobes]. If you pair statement like that with "everybody ought to think what I think instead," that's the dictionary definition of bigotry.
I agree with you completely. Seriously, I can't say it any more clearly than that! Well said. :)
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