Please Answer. What will Marraige Provide to a Homosexual Couple that a Civil Union Won't?

Question

Really trying to understand what Homosexuals are trying to achieve in Marraige that they will not get in a Civil Union.

I will say in my Mother's Day, Women wanted to marry because they did not work and the husband was the breadwinner and he supported the family.

Speed up a few years, many women like myself who worked wanted to Marry because we wanted a that little girls dream of being the Beautiful Bride and having family and friends attend a spirtual ceremony and being able to have children in a loving Marriage to a Mother and Father...

Many heterosexual couples today that are older and do not plan on having children and are established don't feel they need to be married unless they have a strong religious belief on sex and living together.

So why do Gays want Marraige? if they are protected by a Civil Union?

Answer 1

Well first of all civil unions are not legal in almost every state so the question is pretty much a moot point.

Second, imagine you being told you could not get married because of your race? This has been the norm. Think back a few decades. African Americans were not allowed to married Caucasians. Is that fair? Go back even further in history. Indians were not allowed Caucasians either.

Look, this is a basic civil rights issue. If homosexuals are not allowed to have the basic civil rights who is next? I hear the Christian Right telling women that they should stay at home and raise their kids. I am a woman who chooses to work. Think it is impossible take a listen to any radical minister. Jerry Falwell comes to mind. If it were up to him, I would be barefoot and pregnant.

Answer 2

Civil unions don't offer ANY federal benefits (thanks to one Mr. Clinton) and they also tend to mean NOTHING once you leave the state. Any other married couple doesn't need to worry about going on a vacation, because they know that even if there's an emergency they'll be able to see their spouse. Those gay couples fortunate enough to live in a state that has so much as a civil union still don't have that luxury. Also, if the relationship DOES end, things get really messy if there was a child involved: moreso than a normal divorce because we simply aren't protected. Especially so if one person moves out of state.

I KNOW you're not trying to tell me that the only childless heterosexual people who get married are doing so out of religious obligation. The fact that "some" people are happy without marriage is irrelevant. Some people want it, and there's no good reason that they shouldn't have access to it as an option.

If they made a "federal civil union" and stopped calling the legal thing that straight people get "marriage", and left that word strictly for the religious folk, I'd be happy. Or, if they allowed same sex couples to have legal marriage, that is called legal marriage, and that is the same as any other legal marriage, I'd be happy. Until such time as either of those two things happen, it's not equality and it's not excusable.

Answer 3

There are two aspects to marriage - the civil contract, and the religious. I am completely uninterested in the religious aspect - that is best dealt with by individual churches.

The civil contract of marriage however automatically grants a married couple over 1100 federal rights - those apply the second the couple take their vows. In contrast, a gay couple can achieve just a handful of those rights by going through months of work with a lawyer.

I would be MORE than happy if ALL couples had a civil union - gay or straight. That would be an equitable way of ensuring all couples have the same rights. I am against a 'separate but equal' system where one set of people are given a 'civil union' and another set are given a 'civil marriage' - by making such a distinction, you are inherently saying there is something different (and therefore inferior) about one set of relationships.

So - if the federal government replaces every mention of marriage with 'civil union' in federal law, and every state does the same in their laws, I'll gladly accept a civil union. Otherwise, I want the same status as any heterosexual couple - Civil Marriage.

Answer 4

I don't know what you're talking about with Mother's Day and and all that.

You say women want to marry because they want that little girl's dream of being the beautiful bride and having family and friends attend a ceremony and to be able to share their lives together with one another . . . what makes you think that gays and lesbians are any different (well, change the 'bride' and 'little girl' in the case for gay men)?

And no, lots of heterosexual couples today that are older and do not plan on having children do get married. Yes, some don't, but some do.

Gays want marriage for the same reason anyone else wants marriage! How would you feel if marriage was denied to you as a straight person, who were only given civil unions?

I think you're working off a wrong view of marriage; marriage is about government recognition of two individuals' right to share their lives together, that's it. Doesn't mean anything about children or religion or anything like that.

Answer 5

Speaking just on the legal aspects of civil unions vs marriage in the USA there is quite a big difference. Civil unions that are currently offered in states such as Vermont and Connecticut provide some legal protections to same sex partners, but they do not provide ANY of the federal protections that marriage comes with.

There are 1,138 federal rights that heterosexual couples automatically receive when they get married. Civil unions do not give same sex couples these rights because they are state sanctioned and not recognized by the federal government. If it were to be truly equal ALL the same rights and protections by State and Federal that are given to married heterosexual couples would also need to be granted to same sex couples.

To review the list of 1,138 federal rights see the below URL:

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04353r.pdf

Answer 6

As other people have said, there are many rights that a marriage holds that a civil union doesn't. But here's one from my own life that worries me most (just to give you a little personal view).

If I have a civil union (which I can do here in Vermont), and my partner gets into a car accident coming home from work, I can go see him in the hospital. I can walk into the ER, tell them I am his partner, and that's that, they let me in.

If we drive to his mother's house in New York, and get in a car accident on the way there, he's hurt, but I'm fine, they take him to the hospital, and I arrive later. I walk into the ER, tell them I am his partner, and they will show me to the waiting room. Meanwhile, the love of my life could be dying alone in the next room.

It's not about some stupid debate. To me, it's not even about equality, so much as wanting legal protections like this. I love my partner with everything I am, and to think of something terrible happening, and not being able to say goodbye and tell him I love him one last time is absolutely terrifying.

Answer 7

Civil unions don't give the Federal rights tied to a marriage contract. Also, civil unions are being ignored in times like seeing a partner on their death bed in the hospital. Even with all the legal protections available, including a civil union, people are still being prevented from seeing their partner while they're in the hospital.

Answer 8

i'm Christian and that i take tremendous offense to the idea. i trust marriage is an association made between 2 those who's deepest and is noone's organization, including the authorities yet they had to adhere their noses in each and everything. 2 those who're atheist must be in a position to have a wedding ceremony done through the Justice of the Peace or whoever they desire, everywhere they desire, and besides the undeniable fact that they desire. Why ought to I care? I ought to target to end 2 people from wanting to experience free mutually? I ought to "downgrade" their relationship to a civil union because it does no longer serve my maximum ideal interests? yet considering at the same time as grow to be it about me, and not in any respect them? In my kinfolk there are Christians, Muslims, and Hindus. Why ought to I ever be so stupid to imagine that my Hindu kin don't have a wedding ceremony or a wedding ceremony because of their faith (or maybe lack of it)? If the authorities had saved their noses out of marriage in the first position, there does no longer be the debate with similar-sex marriage in the first position. enable people make their personal judgements.

Answer 9

I think psychologically, the first idea of the word "marriage" for most people is the marriage between their father and mother. This word is sacred when you were a child.

As an adult, people still strive for a part of that ultimate relationship in their mind. This is true for all couples, not just straight ones.

Hey, it's Valentine's day. It's love...that's why a "Civil Union" can't provide for people what a marriage does.

Answer 10

If we get married by civil union, we do not get any of the social security benefits heterosexuals get. For example, if a man and a women were married, and one of them died, the living would be entitled to the deceased's social security. Civil Unions do not provide us with that. In certain countries, civil unions do not provide homosexual couples with the right to adopt children or collectively own property. THAT is why we would like to have equal marriage rights. We're people too!