Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Careful what you wish for

OK, I'll take the week off in a minute. Delicious irony supersedes time off.

I support gay marriage.

I think that you should be able to marry whomever you want.

I also support thinking things through.

If you are intelligent enough to circumvent the laws of your home state by going to Massachusetts to get married, you should be intelligent enough to plan for what you're going to do if/when your fairy tale dissolves.

And if your home state doesn't feel the need to assist you in the dissolution of said fairy tale, well, I can't say that I blame them. After all, they aren't the ones that got you into this mess.

10 comments:

codeblog said...

So you support their right to get married, just not divorced?

That's a little backwards, in my opinion.

Things don't work out between men and women, either. If men and women are allowed to divorce, gay couples should be allowed as well.

Why should gay couples be the only ones who need to be "intelligent enough" to plan ahead when there are plenty of hetero couples that aren't?

Jess said...

Why do you need a divorce petition to be divorced?

Is the concern here that one of them may remarry, therefore making themselves eligible in the state of Rhode Island for prosecution of polygamy? Seriously?

You can legally separate your stuff and get a financial settlement without a divorce decree.

The entire thing seems contrived to me. It’s a forced effort to get R.I. to recognize same-sex marriage. Makes sense to handpick a couple to landmark such a case.

Make it simple, guys. Wake up, get your religion out of government, and we won’t have these issues. You can determine whoever you want to marry in your own church. But you have no right to prevent civil unions- OR divorces.

William the Coroner said...

They can get divorced. In Massachusetts. They can get married in Rhode Island. (Ok, to men) They can't use this as a back door to circumvent the laws of Rhode Island.

Oh, well.

Anonymous said...

Codeblog- I think her reason behind the post was to point out the irony that a gay couple had to go to a different state to get married because the state they lived in wouldn't allow them to get married in the first place. So, why wouldn't they have to go to a state that allows gay marriage to get a divorce?

I am all for two consenting adults getting married to whoever they want, male or female. What I do wonder about is why are they complaining about their state not allow their divorce, but they didn't have a problem going to a different state to get married in the first place. I think their human rights were violated in the fact that they wouldn't allow them to marry in the first place.

Barbara said...

I read the article. I have one word:

Wah.

You're absolutely right, Monkeygirl. If you're not mature and responsible enough to consider all the laws surrounding your marriage, you're not mature and responsible enough to marry - regardless of who the partners are. Expecting your home state to change its laws to make you happy in your individual situation is the pinnacle of immaturity. The only thing to do is move, or make a concerted effort to reconcile. Both take some self-sacrifice. I realize that forethought and sacrifice are waning concepts in the world today, but then that is exactly what's WRONG with the world today.

Anonymous said...

It's simple enough to me. If the state doesn't recognize the marriage, how could it grant a divorce?

Nurse K said...

William the Coroner said "back door". hehe hehh

In the United States, states have rights to make their own laws (for some things). This is to prevent the central/Federal government from becoming too powerful. No matter what you believe on the subject, recognition of gay marriage is not something that needs to be decided by Congress and the president.

I got married in a different state because my state, to prevent shotgun marriages like mine, wouldn't let me get a marriage license and get married within 2 weeks of each other. Each state has different laws like this.

911DOC said...

Damn-you Nurse K!!! I was going to point out the 'back door' reference, but you did miss the 'fairy tale' reference. Huhuhuh.

Amy said...

I choose to see this as a good reason for gay marriage to be universal throughout the country. Although I'm quite happy to live and be married to my wife here in MA, it sucks to know that if we move to another state, we wouldn't be married anymore. But then, that would make for a simple/cheap dissolution of our marriage, wouldn't it?

Anonymous said...

To reply to Nurse K's comment:

"No matter what you believe on the subject, recognition of gay marriage is not something that needs to be decided by Congress and the president."

Unfortunately, because of the Defense of Marriage Act same sex marriage is already addressed at a Federal level. My wife and I are married in Massachusetts. We cannot file Federal taxes jointly. As a same-sex couple cannot avail ourselves of hundreds of tax benefits for married people.

I am a retired Federal employee. I cannot extend my health insurance to cover her as my wife because we are a same-sex couple.