"Protecting Marriage" Allows Domestic Violence
The "Defense of Marriage Act" passed in Ohio as a desperate attempt to outlaw gay marriage (and more importantly rally conservative voters) has opened the door to exempting live-in couples that aren't married from being charged with domestic violence laws.The anti gay marriage law says that only married couples will get the benefits and rights of marriage. One of those benefits is being protected by domestic violence laws if they are abused by their spouse. So now live in boyfriends can freely abuse their girlfriends and only be charged with simple assault.
Then again, domestic violence is a sort of "hate crimes" law anyway, so we probably don't even need it anyway.
Maybe people should have thought this through a little more before being so adamant to vote against the evil gays. I'm also awaiting the voiding of all common-law marriages here in Texas. It shouldn't take long for that to come to court too.
posted by Brady @ 8:03 PM
2 Comments:
As someone who works for a shelter for domestic violence, I would have to say that domestic violence laws themselves do little to stop abuse. I am not sure how you can justify using domestic violence as an argument against a defense of marraige law. I'm not saying that this law is just, but I do think that this is a weak argument. The truth is, most domestic abuse goes on without any charges at all as police are usually afraid to persue the crimes because of fear that the victims will not testify anyway.
JBowers,
Thanks for posting. I'm not well versed in how succesful domestic violence laws all, but I do know they exist in nearly all states in the country, and even if they are not often reported or used, they appear to give the authorities a leg up on the abusers.
My point in the post is that this "defense of marriage" legislation hasn't been thought through completely. As I mentioned, if someone really reads Texas' new law, they'll see it pretty clearly outlaws ALL common-law marriages. People ignore that side because it was meant to only affect gays, but lawyers will eventually start to pick these things apart. We should be making good law, not poorly thought out law intended only to punish a particular group.
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