I am thoroughly convinced by the testimony I heard at New Jersey's senate judiciary committee hearing on 2009 December 7 that civil unions don't work. Even though civil unions and marriage are supposed to provide the same substantive legal State rights, marriage enjoys better recognition that makes a difference at the hospital.
I hope we legalize gay marriage so that gay couples suffer fewer horrendous experiences at hospitals.
I'd also like to know whether other legal constructions that also do not enjoy the label "marriage" lead to the same horror stories we hear about in New Jersey in the context of civil unions. Even if we do legalize gay marriage, I might choose to fill out a bunch of health care proxy forms to indicate a chain of command for my closest friends to make decisions should I ever lack the ability to make them for myself. It would be really great if hospitals could understand my instructions regarding my friends as easily as they could understand the label "marriage" even though I have no intent on marrying all of my friends.
Draft 2
The State of New Jersey is unable to provide civil union partners the substantive rights it gives married straight couples even though, aside from typographical errors and unintended errors, civil union code is written in theory to provide gay couples with all the substantive, tangible rights of marriage. Putting aside the question of whether the State of New Jersey should attempt to provide the substantive rights of marriage through a civil union, it's not encouraging that even when New Jersey does attempt to do so, it fails.
No comments:
Post a Comment