I Hate to Say I Was Right...
You may remember back in March that I posted about the Ohio "Marriage Amendment" to protect Ohioans against the horrors of gay marriage was rumored to prevent straight, unmarried couples from receiving the protection of domestic violence laws.Well, it looks like my fears just came true. A lower-level appeals court in Ohio ruled that a man could not be charged with assaulting his live-in girlfriend under domestic violence laws because that charge would mean the unmarried couple would be given special rights similar to marriage. As a result of the ruling, domestic violence assaults in the county will be treated as misdemeanors rather than felonies. All I can say is WOW.
The good news is that two other lower courts have ruled the opposite way in similar cases. It looks like the Ohio Supreme Court is going to have to weigh in on this one, and lawsuits involving custody and insurance for unmarried straight couples are also soon to follow. But two things are pretty clear: 1. The creators of this amendment were so hell-bent on passing this thing they either were careless in creating it or didn't care who was harmed in order to ban gay marriage and 2. The voters are about to see why Constitutional Amendments shouldn't be taken so lightly. All this to ensure that gays, a tiny fraction of our population, can't get married.
Thanks to Shakespeare's Sister for the link, who also takes the time to remind straight people that any time a minority group has their rights infringed upon, it infringes on the rights of everyone. Good point.
posted by Brady @ 8:56 AM
2 Comments:
The creators of this amendment were so hell-bent on passing this thing they either were careless in creating it or didn't care who was harmed in order to ban gay marriage...
I think they probably really do think that making life less secure for unmarried people, even heterosexuals, even to the point of treating domestic violence less seriously, is a good thing because it will encourage marriage. I think the thinking really is that treating everyone as second class citizens until they get married (to an opposite sex partner of course), places marriage and the nuclear family in its proper place as the foundation of society.
I'm sure a lot of heterosexuals, even those who think same sex couples shouldn't be given legal status, don't agree with that. I'm tempted to just tell them they got what they voted for. But the trick will be to convince them that their freedom and dignity cannot be bought at the expense of ours.
Good thoughts, Bruce. This sums it up nicely, "I'm tempted to just tell them they got what they voted for. But the trick will be to convince them that their freedom and dignity cannot be bought at the expense of ours."
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