INTERDEPENDENT RELATIONSHIPS: Elizabeth Marquardt
...Third, the editor felt the argument about interdependent couples is irrelevant. No one is talking about that, he said. Well, actually, some influential legal theorists are making just this argument, that we shouldn't be concerned about who is
having sex with each other but rather who is caring for one another. We should focus on care relationships, not sexual relationships, they say, and put our state and social support in the former category. Not a bad idea, perhaps, but once we extend marriage law to everybody who's caring for someone it's hard to tell what marriage
itself is for anymore. That's why in the oped we advocate for other, significant kinds of state and legal supports being available to same sex and interdependent couples rather than marriage.
And incidentally, though the
NYT oped editor claimed no one is talking about interdependent coupes, the
NYT itself is already laying the groundwork with a
couldn't-be-more-obvious piece that ran on the front page a little over a week ago, which talked about older women who've been friends for years teaming up to age together. They're not having sex, they're just friends, but they want to share housing and companionship and care for one another when they fall ill. Sounds like a great idea. But trust us, this is the first salvo in one of the next developments of this debate. If heterosexual couples and homosexual couples get the benefits of marriage, why not these caring, aging couples?
more
posted by Eve at
2:21 PM | link
Post a Comment
<< Home