new comedy, "Married with Christians"
Jul. 30th, 2003 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eorThe President of the United States wants to codify that marriage is between a man and a woman. But he also makes noises about wanting to respect individuals.
Since this country doesn't have a state sanctioned religion the answer is easy. Make marriage something that is a religious event and have all state recognition come from legal contracts. All legal benefits questions could come from co-habitation, power of attorney, and similar agreements, if the laws were so designed. The churches could keep marriage as sacred and discriminatory as they see fit and there wouldn't be the muddiness of the current lack of seperation. After all, presently I can get married by a priest, but have to have a lawyer and a court to get divorced.
Let's face it, there are things that current marriage law does not adequately address. For instance, a court in Texas ruled that a deceased male's wife (a union legally sanctioned by the state) could not inherit his estate because the wife was born male and had a sex change. The state recognized the sex change in allowing the marriage in the first place (and most likely on the issuance of driver's license, etc), but then won't stand by the same decision in probate.
Let the churches have their marriage, let the pagans have their handfastings, but there is no reason that should create a legal entity. Let legal entities be created in legal ways.
Since this country doesn't have a state sanctioned religion the answer is easy. Make marriage something that is a religious event and have all state recognition come from legal contracts. All legal benefits questions could come from co-habitation, power of attorney, and similar agreements, if the laws were so designed. The churches could keep marriage as sacred and discriminatory as they see fit and there wouldn't be the muddiness of the current lack of seperation. After all, presently I can get married by a priest, but have to have a lawyer and a court to get divorced.
Let's face it, there are things that current marriage law does not adequately address. For instance, a court in Texas ruled that a deceased male's wife (a union legally sanctioned by the state) could not inherit his estate because the wife was born male and had a sex change. The state recognized the sex change in allowing the marriage in the first place (and most likely on the issuance of driver's license, etc), but then won't stand by the same decision in probate.
Let the churches have their marriage, let the pagans have their handfastings, but there is no reason that should create a legal entity. Let legal entities be created in legal ways.
