The Problem With Marriage

Corporations didn't wait even a single week after New York legalized gay marriage before using it to fuck over workers.

From the New York Times:

Tie the knot to get the benefits:

Now that same-sex marriage has been legalized in New York, at least a few large companies are requiring their employees to tie the knot if they want their partners to qualify for health insurance.

Several years ago, during the start of the push for gay marriage, Steve M. wrote a post explaining why civil unions are better than gay marriage - for everyone.

I can't find the post, and he certainly expressed the idea better than I can, but if I remember correctly, his point was that civil unions offer all the advantages of marriage without the disadvantages of marriage for all couples - same-sex and opposite-sex.

Long before gay marriage was a public issue, heterosexual couples had been seeking legal recognition of their partnership without the burden of state-sanctioned marriage. Civil unions for heterosexuals couples never got very far, but once civil unions were offered as better-than-nothing for gay couples seeking marriage, the civil union route became available for heterosexual couples, too.

Steve's fear was that achieving legal gay marriage before civil unions would deny heterosexual couples the advantages - the rights - of civil union.

And now it's happened.

I number among my friends several gay couples, including some in states where gay marriage is now legal. Some of them will get married, but some of them will not. I am thrilled beyond description that they now have the right to make that choice, and devoutly wish that all gay couples in every state achieve that right and soon.

But I also sincerely wish that my friends who are heterosexual had the right to choose a civil union.

From The Economist:

HENRY FARRELL points to an interesting statistical find on Arthur Goldhammer's French politics and society blog: since France introduced domestic partnerships (known as PACS) in 1999, largely to accommodate same-sex unions without having to legalise gay marriage, the number of marriages has fallen, as heterosexual couples have opted increasingly for the PACS route. But, Mr Farrell writes, when you add marriages and PACS, the number of people entering legally sanctioned romantic relationships is higher than ever.

Liberals think everyone deserve marriage equality, which means both marriage and civil unions available for all.