Tuesday, November 30, 2010

It's Today

Out there in Illinois, the Illinois General Assembly is expected to vote on same-sex civil unions legislation. It is expected, of course, to be a very close vote, though Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan expects lawmakers to approve the bill, and the governor has voiced his support for civil unions.
I'm a bit ambivalent about this. I think if we start getting civilly unionized, or whatever you call it, then people will say we don't need marriage; to me, civil unions are still back of the bus. If Americans, straight Americans, can marry whomever they love, then gay Americans should be able to do so as well.
To me, it's just that simple.
Now, don't get me wrong, civil unions are nice, but they still feel less than. Some people are married, you know, most people, but others aren't because they can only have civil unions. It's different, and different is less than. See, straight couples have the option of marriage or civil union, gay couples do not.
Back of the bus.
And, if civil unions are legalized in Illinois, well, don't take that to mean that gay marriages performed elsewhere will be recognized, because that won't happen. The bill will provide the same spousal rights to same-sex partners when it comes to surrogate decision-making for medical treatment, survivorship, adoptions, and accident and health insurance.
Nice, but still, not good enough.
For me, it should be marriage; equal marriage only.
This is just marriage-lite. And I won't be spoon-fed this crap.

3 comments:

  1. I don't bat an eyelash over civil unions anymore. You're right. It does feel like it's "Get in the back of the bus!" whenever I hear about them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well being from Illinois, I see it as one step closer to getting full equality.

    Marriage-lite? Absolutley. But once all the fear and hoopla die down, the next push will come for marriage.

    The small victories will start to add up and before long all of this will be behind us.

    If, and that is a big if, SC decided to offer Civil Unions you wouldnt be happy?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Actually, Dan, I wouldn't be happy with civil unions in SC, though there is little chance of that every happening here..
    I think if we start getting civil unions everywhere, when we begin to demand marriage, the argument will be that we have civil unions and that should be enough.
    It's like I've said before, Rosa Parks did not want to move from the back of the bus to the middle of the bus; she wanted to move to sit in the same seats as white people.
    I want to sit in the same seats [marriage] as straight people.

    ReplyDelete

Say anything, but keep it civil .......