Gay marriage

Active Ink Slinger

0 likes 6 Oct 2013

It's coming into law soon in the UK and I believe in the USA as well. Is this the right step or a step too far. I would be really interested in hearing the views on this as well.

Unknown User

0 likes 6 Oct 2013

Canada's been there for a while now. I supported it from the get-go on both civil rights and religious grounds (I'm a UU and we were among the groups fighting for same-sex marriage here). The sky has not fallen in and we have a lot of married couples that we otherwise would not have had, so all went well. In our case, it started with the courts in various provinces ruling that it was a right that could not be denied to same-sex couples and the federal government finally (in 2005) updated the marriage act to make it official across the country.

As far as the US goes, they are going state-by-state so it could still be a while before the whole country has it.

sprite

Her Royal Spriteness

0 likes 6 Oct 2013

gay people should not get married - they'll ruin the specialness of my marriage to my wife. biggrin

You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.

Dani

Big-haired Bitch/Personality Hire

0 likes 6 Oct 2013

Quote by sprite
gay people should not get married - they'll ruin the specialness of my marriage to my wife.

That's it, missy. No more internet for you.

*escorts you away*

░P░U░S░S░Y░ ░I░N░ ░B░I░O░

sprite

Her Royal Spriteness

0 likes 6 Oct 2013

Quote by slipperywhenwet2012

That's it, missy. No more internet for you.

*escorts you away*

you never let me have any fun. *pouts*

You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.

Buz

The Linebacker

0 likes 6 Oct 2013

The elder ex-President George H. Bush attended a gay wedding and signed the document as a witness just a few days ago. I'm all for gays getting married. Why not? Best wishes for happiness!

The city of Atlanta voted for it, but its just a token, not legally bonding, as the state of Georgia has to pass such legislation. Right now a statewide referendum would be close, very close as polls have put it at close to a 50-50 for and against with Georgia voters. In time that percentage should change in favor of gay marriage, probably not long. There are 50 states in the USA, a few already have legalized gay marriage. Such a thing is usually a state-by-state issue in our system.

Just a word of caution though. The divorce lawyers also support gay marriage, but maybe not for the same reasons the rest of us do.

dpw

Active Ink Slinger

0 likes 6 Oct 2013

Quote by Buz
The elder ex-President George H. Bush attended a gay wedding and signed the document as a witness just a few days ago. I'm all for gays getting married. Why not? Best wishes for happiness!

The city of Atlanta voted for it, but its just a token, not legally bonding, as the state of Georgia has to pass such legislation. Right now a statewide referendum would be close, very close as polls have put it at close to a 50-50 for and against with Georgia voters. In time that percentage should change in favor of gay marriage, probably not long. There are 50 states in the USA, a few already have legalized gay marriage. Such a thing is usually a state-by-state issue in our system.

Just a word of caution though. The divorce lawyers also support gay marriage, but maybe not for the same reasons the rest of us do.

The last bit has been going through my mind as well, I thought we'd escalate the divorce rate 'cos we're used to fff. The bit about state by state. Also picked up in the previous comment, surprised me. I thought it was like civil rights and the indiividual states had no say. Over here a law is passed and that's it, it's the law.

Buz

The Linebacker

0 likes 6 Oct 2013

Quote by dpw

The last bit has been going through my mind as well, I thought we'd escalate the divorce rate 'cos we're used to fff. The bit about state by state. Also picked up in the previous comment, surprised me. I thought it was like civil rights and the indiividual states had no say. Over here a law is passed and that's it, it's the law.

Unless the US Congress decides to take up the issue and pass an amendment or a case gets before the US Supreme Court it is out of the hands of the federal government. Most issues like that are state to state in the USA. There can be a somewhat wide difference in some laws from state to state. For instance the death penalty is legal in approximately 35 states but illegal in about 15. (I've forget the exact number but its in that range.) Democracy, individual liberties, state's rights and responsibilities and federal ones are always an issue and a work in progress. Personally I like a good balance between federal and state's rights on laws. I hate for one entity to be too all-powerful. But I would like to see gay marriage get okay'd in all 50 states.

If it became a constitutional issue as an amendment, all it takes is two-thirds of the states to pass the amendment and it officlally becomes a US Constitutional Amendment.

Unknown User

0 likes 6 Oct 2013

Quote by Buz

Just a word of caution though. The divorce lawyers also support gay marriage, but maybe not for the same reasons the rest of us do.

Actually, we got into a bit of screwball situation over same-sex divorce here. After same-sex marriage became legal up here, a lot of Americans came up here to get married (now I guess they just go to a state that has approved it). But our divorce act didn't allow them to get divorced here and their own constituencies didn't recognize the marriage so they couldn't get divorced at home either. We amended our act to say that if the marriage was solemnized in Canada, the divorce could happen here even if the couple weren't Canadian.

Unknown User

0 likes 6 Oct 2013

Quote by Buz

Unless the US Congress decides to take up the issue and pass an amendment or a case gets before the US Supreme Court it is out of the hands of the federal government. Most issues like that are state to state in the USA. There can be a somewhat wide difference in some laws from state to state. For instance the death penalty is legal in approximately 35 states but illegal in about 15. (I've forget the exact number but its in that range.) Democracy, individual liberties, state's rights and responsibilities and federal ones are always an issue and a work in progress. Personally I like a good balance between federal and state's rights on laws. I hate for one entity to be too all-powerful. But I would like to see gay marriage get okay'd in all 50 states.

If it became a constitutional issue as an amendment, all it takes is two-thirds of the states to pass the amendment and it officlally becomes a US Constitutional Amendment.

State rights are one of the things I find hard to grok about your system. Here, for instance, criminal law is made at the federal level so when we abolished the death penalty (1968, by the way) it was abolished once for whole country. Province prosecute the crimes but the law used is federal so is the same in all provinces. Same with marriage and divorce law (though family law, covering issues like adoption and child custody, is provincial). The idea of each part of the country having its own criminal sanctions or marriage law just seems odd to me but that's because I grew up in the more centralized system up here.

Quebec is our one outlier, in that because of their French language and culture, they use French civil law instead of English civil law and also control some programs that are federal in the rest of Canada (e.g. immigration and pensions).