Most marriage-laws thru-out the world define a
marriage
as a contract between one male and one female.
In the United States, about 35 states have specific heterosexual
requirements.
And where state laws do not specify that the marriage partners
must be of different sexes, heterosexuality is nevertheless implicit.
Thus, even if the state law does not limit marriage to different-sex
couples,
the marriage license applications do.
And the people in charge of issuing marriage licenses
always refuse to license same-sex couples.
(One-by-one states are now beginning to change these laws and
practices.)
But people who do not have heterosexual
sex-scripts
are not inclined to create marriages with people of the other sex.
If marriage appeals to them, they want to marry people of their own sex.
Gays and lesbians often create long-lasting, committed loving
relationships.
Eventually same-sex partnerships will be recognized in some form.
Gay and lesbian 'marriages' will gain legal status in the 21st century.
Thru legislative and/or judicial action, committed same-sex couples
will have their relationships recognized, validated, & regulated by
law.
About half of Americans now favor same-sex 'marriages'.
And an even larger proportion do not oppose allowing same-sex couples
to have basically the same rights as different-sex couples.
Thus, some state legislatures are changing their laws in various ways
to permit partners of the same sex to register their partnership.
Another way same-sex 'marriages' might be recognized is thru the courts:
The highest court in a state or country
might determine that allowing only heterosexuals the privileges of
marriage
is impermissible discrimination against gays and lesbians.
Neither heterosexuals nor homosexuals
are responsible for their imprinted sex-scripts.
But under most current marriage laws,
only heterosexuals have the special privilege of getting married.
If some heterosexuals believe that they must "defend marriage"
by preventing homosexuals from getting married,
perhaps it will be possible to create a new legal partnership
with a different name for homosexuals
that will therefore not seem to threaten heterosexual marriages.
(The same new legal partnership should also be available to
heterosexuals,
because some heterosexual couples do not want traditional marriage.)
SPECIAL
SITUATIONS:
SAME-SEX
MARRIAGES
by James
Park
153
We should note that laws specifically banning
same-sex marriages
or the recognition of same-sex marriages created elsewhere
have often been called "defense of marriage acts".
Such naming makes it seem that heterosexual marriage is under attack.
And it causes many traditional people to oppose
the right of homosexuals to have their partnerships recognized.
Some of these 'defenders of marriage' would not object
to same-sex couples being able to file joint income-tax returns
—as long as they do not call themselves "married".
In other words, extending marriage-like rights to committed homosexual
couples
might happen under some other name, such as "domestic partnership". The above
page+ is the beginning of a 12-page section on same-sex marriage from Designer Marriage.