Congratulations, New York!

[altivo]

We were watching Gnomeo & Juliet (very funny, see it, plus it has Elton John music and Patrick Stewart as Will Shakespeare) when it happened. New York now has gay marriage. I gather it wasn't any of this pussy foot wimp-out "civil union" stuff like Illinois did either. California, hang your head in shame for dragging your feet for so long.

It's funny. Back in 1973 and 74, when we were just getting into the swing of protests and demonstrations, and really starting to show numbers even though people threw eggs and tomatoes at us (or worse) I don't think we ever thought the movement would come so far in our own lifetimes. Perhaps there is hope that the human race will grow up after all.

Nah, what am I saying. Look at the Middle East, look at Africa... If it ever happens, it's going to take thousands of years still.

Not that I've ever thought gay marriage was a big goal. I've always said that "marriage" is a religious concept, and the state should get out of the marriage business entirely. But I'm rational, moreso than most people in the US I guess. The screaming hypocrisy of people like Newt Gingrich insisting that we have to "defend the sanctity of marriage" when none of his legal marriages have lasted as long as my same sex partnership just cried out for this. And now we are seeing it. As the big states go, so will the rest, even the holdouts like Kentucky and West Virginia. If necessary, the federal courts will force it on them, just as they did with interracial marriages.

If only we could get a decent national health care plan instead of this abomination congress has dumped on us, I'd be happy.

On another front, DECnet working perfectly on three machines at the library. It works at home too, except that one pairing is unidirectional. It has to be a configuration issue. A can connect to B or C, B can connect to A or C, C can connect to A but not to B. Makes no sense, but I can't find the flaw. Even putting the configuration files from one site alongside those from the other doesn't reveal the issue.

Fireflies have appeared. Flashing their little green lights at us through the glass, making what looks like Morse code until you try to read it and it comes out in Japanese or something. Catalpa trees flowered and within just a couple of days dropped everything in the wind and rain. Sad. Those are one of my most favorite flowers. They smell so nice and look so tropical.

Comments

[avon_deer]

While you're going forwards..we're going backwards. Our healthcare system is under attack again now that the Tories are back in. We need Germany to fly over and bomb our cities to rubble again just to remind us why we formed it in the first place.

[altivo]

We're not going forward on health care. The new "plan" that is to be phased in over the next four years is no improvement, but rather a step backward. It will give the private insurance corporations and private hospitals complete control of everything, which is what they want and does not bode well for anyone else. Medicine will be just like banking, with millionaire executives sucking money and blood out of everyone else.

[shadow_stallion]

I'm not one who needs a piece of paper to tell me I'm married or committed to my partner. However I am pleased to see the news out of New York. It's certainly a step in the right direction. It's probably still going to be a long time before a majority of the states allow it or the religious and political factions stop trying to kill it. I'd certainly like to see it legal here, it would make things like insurance so very much easier. We're not sure at this point if the small company I secured a job with will allow domestic partner benefits or not. Legal marriage for same-sex couples would make this a non-issue perhaps.

[altivo]

I fear that the federal courts will have to step in before we actually see things like spouse insurance benefits fairly delivered even here in Illinois. I'm waiting for clear evidence on that. The state did create the so-called "civil union" this year and it went into effect this month. But the law is so vague that I'm not sure how taxes or health care insurance are affected.

I'm particularly concerned about the potential catch-22 between state and fed on income taxes, but I really would like to get Gary onto my health insurance.

[typographer]

Marriage is a religious institution on many levels, but it is one that the federal government (and pretty much all governments everywhere) tie more than a thousand of legal rights to (I'm not exaggerating -- federal law ties about 1,020 legal rights to marital status. The New York legislature identified about 1300 state rights similarly determined by marriage). Most of those rights are not available or assignable any other way.

It's also a social institution. My most bigoted evangelical relatives may very well believe that my Hindu co-worker is going to hell for his religion, but they still recognize the "realness" of his marriage to his wife--even though it was done in the religion they disapprove of.

I don't expect that if my state (whose voters approved a definition of civil union that explicitly gave all the legal rights of marriage in so far as the state can do it) took the last step and approved marriage equality in name as well that those evangelical relatives would come around right away... but after a few years of seeing other people accept it, they'd let it move into the same category as inter-racial marriage (which I know you and I are old enough to remember was not always legal everywhere here, and yes, those same relatives of mine heartily disapproved at the time...)

I know you know all of this. And I understand the impulse about the state getting out of the marriage business. But in order to do that, the law has to also completely get out of the inheritance business, the child welfare business, and, well, frankly any sort of private property registration business at all. Society (and it's proxy, elected government) has a vested interest in there being procedures and rules and customs for how property is inherited, who is responsible for the upbringing and care of children, who makes medical decisions when someone is incapacitated, and so forth.

We're social animals. Our relationships are important, not just to us, but to the "herd" as a whole. That's why that

[altivo]

Looks like you may have been cut off a bit there.

I understand about the social importance and all, but I object to the entrenched social attitudes that created the situation too. I'm just really stubborn and non-conformist.

I'm also concerned that these new laws will turn out to be botched so that they don't achieve what we might hope that they will. Certainly the Illinois one is so weak that I have zero confidence in it. Unless DOMA is repealed or really killed by the courts, it will achieve nothing on the federal level of course, but even inside the state it isn't explicit enough.