Comments on: equality http://awakenings.blogsome.com/2007/12/03/equality/ navigating the spaces between in and out Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:00:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.1-alpha by: kate http://awakenings.blogsome.com/2007/12/03/equality/#comment-35 Tue, 04 Dec 2007 17:26:13 +0000 http://awakenings.blogsome.com/2007/12/03/equality/#comment-35 Oh, and don't ever worry about what you'd call a pity party. Bring it all here. We're here for you. Oh, and don’t ever worry about what you’d call a pity party. Bring it all here. We’re here for you.

]]> by: kate http://awakenings.blogsome.com/2007/12/03/equality/#comment-34 Tue, 04 Dec 2007 17:25:20 +0000 http://awakenings.blogsome.com/2007/12/03/equality/#comment-34 My uncles have been together for almost thirty years - or, rather, my uncle and his partner, who I have grown up knowing as my uncle at christmases, family barbeques and other gatherings. When I was a kid (but old enough to know what 'gay' meant) I asked my mom, "Is Scott gay?" and she said, "Would it matter if he was?" and I said "No," and that was the end of the discussion. Not because that discussion was squashed, but because she made it clear to me that such a distinction was irrelevant, that he was my uncle, and so was Bruce. What gets me, even more urgently than the right to share the same emotional and social status as straight married couples and families, is the implications of an unrecognized union from a legal standpoint. If Scott ever became sick, Bruce should be able to make important decisions on his behalf. He should be considered 'family', and respected as such by banks, the government, hospitals... by the institutions that legislate and guide and police and monitor our law-abiding lives. He should be allowed to sleep on a cot past visiting hours, and welcomed as Scott's life partner in any and every scenario, even the ones we all fear most. Especially in those. So yeah. I can't imagine what it must be like to be living in the States and to have more than two brain cells to rub together. I feel for all those sensible people who are held hostage by such inanity, and hope with all my heart that 2008 brings great and sweeping change. My uncles have been together for almost thirty years - or, rather, my uncle and his partner, who I have grown up knowing as my uncle at christmases, family barbeques and other gatherings. When I was a kid (but old enough to know what ‘gay’ meant) I asked my mom, “Is Scott gay?” and she said, “Would it matter if he was?” and I said “No,” and that was the end of the discussion. Not because that discussion was squashed, but because she made it clear to me that such a distinction was irrelevant, that he was my uncle, and so was Bruce.

What gets me, even more urgently than the right to share the same emotional and social status as straight married couples and families, is the implications of an unrecognized union from a legal standpoint. If Scott ever became sick, Bruce should be able to make important decisions on his behalf. He should be considered ‘family’, and respected as such by banks, the government, hospitals… by the institutions that legislate and guide and police and monitor our law-abiding lives. He should be allowed to sleep on a cot past visiting hours, and welcomed as Scott’s life partner in any and every scenario, even the ones we all fear most. Especially in those.

So yeah. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be living in the States and to have more than two brain cells to rub together. I feel for all those sensible people who are held hostage by such inanity, and hope with all my heart that 2008 brings great and sweeping change.

]]> by: Heather http://awakenings.blogsome.com/2007/12/03/equality/#comment-32 Tue, 04 Dec 2007 04:33:26 +0000 http://awakenings.blogsome.com/2007/12/03/equality/#comment-32 hear, hear!!! hear, hear!!!

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