Amazing article about sex, religion and marriage

[danaeris]

This article in the village voice is amazing. I just read it, immediately sent an enthusiastic email to the author, and then *wince* forwarded it to my parents. *crosses fingers* It will be interesting to see what they think about it...

It discusses how legal marriage as it stands (even if it allows same-sex marriage) fails to separate church and state, and suggests some alternative solutions.

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0330/levine.php


x-posted to polyamory

Comments

[auros]

Abolish Marriage!

I really do believe that the state should get out of the business of "solemnizing" marriages, and simply allow any group of two or more people to register civil unions.

Abolish divorce too...

[rjpb.livejournal.com]

As the Slate article suggests, "the solution is to end the institution of government-sanctioned marriage." Much of what these articles say is right in line with my thoughts, which I have written about extensively in my journal, including a recent friends-only post on divorce. Abolishing civil marriage is meaningless without also abolishing civil divorce. Once the gay honeymoon celebrating their newly acquired rights is over, they will have to face up to the realities that marriage is not always wonderful.

Re: Abolish divorce too...

[auros]

Well, I can't read your locked post, since I'm not friended... (I'll be happy to friend you, if you friend me. *g*) But I will note that, assuming we switched to having civil unions of two or more humans (another term I've heard for them is "personal corporate entities", but I prefer civil unions, both because it's already in use and because both "civil" and "union" have rather nicer connotations than "corporate" or "entity" *g*) we will certainly need some kind of rules about how somebody can opt out of such unions if they go wrong.

Re: Abolish divorce too...

[danaeris.livejournal.com]

I think that goes part and parcel with abolishing marriage...

Look at it this way. Let's say that there are several forms of union the government sanctions for legal reasons. One involves the assignment of power of attorney. Another makes a partner included in health plans. Another gives hospital visitation rights. Another is a contract to raise children together.

In all but the last case, I believe divorce should be freely allowable, even relatively easy. Certainly, easier than the nightmare that is legal divorce currently.
In the latter case, I think it is more serious. If you sign a contract saying you are raising a child, I think that you should be legally liable to raise that child unless your partner(s) agree to let you out of the contract (and obviously the last person can't give themselves permission). Getting said permission may require finding an acceptable substitute parent.

Meanwhile, as the laws on marriage change, what of those who have a traditional marriage who are still alive? Will they have to divorce piecemeal? Or will they be stuck married forever if divorce is abolished?

[negentropy.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I originally read this post in polyamory, but when I went to comment on it, it was no longer there. Since I hadn't refreshed my friends page, I came on over here to comment, but now I'm mostly curious about what happened to the post in polyamory.

[danaeris.livejournal.com]

Someone posted a vaguely pissed-off sounding comment (although the tone may have been my imagination) saying that it had been posted already. It wasn't entirely true. The person who posted it last time did not provide the link, only mentioned it. 2 people responded, which is a paltry number for such an amazing article. *shrug* Cluttering up the community with reposts of the same article seems like a bad plan, so I took it down.