GAY MARRIAGE: SIDESTEP ON FREEDOM'S PATH: Alexander Cockburn

[Never mind, I found a link.]

I'm for anything that terrifies Democrats, outrages Republicans, upsets the apple cart. But exultation about the gay marriages cemented in San Francisco, counties in Oregon and New Mexico, and some cities in New York is misplaced.

Why rejoice when state and church extend their grip, which is what marriage is all about? Assimilation is not liberation, and the invocation of "equality" as the great attainment of these gay marriages should be challenged. Peter Tatchell, the British gay leader, put it well a couple of years ago: "Equality is a good start, but it is not sufficient. Equality for queers inevitably means equal rights on straight terms, since they are the ones who dominate and determine the existing legal framework. We conform--albeit equally--with their screwed-up system. That is not liberation. It is capitulation."

So the good news, as that excellent paper, UltraViolet (newsletter of LAGAI, Lesbian and Gay Insurrection), recently put it, is not that 400 gay couples are now legally married in San Francisco but that 69,201 in the city (UltraViolet's number) are still living in sin.

Marriage diverts us from the path of necessary reform. Civil union, today lawful only in Vermont, is what makes sense as a national cause. Unmarried couples, straight or gay, need to be able to secure joint property, make safe wills, have hassle-free hospital visits and so forth. But issues of hospital visits or healthcare should have nothing to do with marriage, and marriage as a rite should have nothing to do with legal rights. "Marriage" should be separated from legal recognition of a bond, of a kinship.

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posted by Eve at 5:58 PM | link

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