Here is exactly why the word "marriage" IS important to be used. That is the word used in all of the laws. Tom and I have been together almost 18 years. That is actually longer than alot of our heterosexual friends have lasted. Tom has 2 kids from his 20+ year marraige to a woman/ His Daughter (3 years younger than me) is one of my best friends. His grandkids have grown up knowing "Pa & Mark". We are as married as anyone else in all areas except legally. God forbid the day one of us dies.....THAT is where the battles and headaches add to the heartache. If gay marriage offens anyone my advice is, Don't marry a gay person and you have no problem. :umbrella1:
I guess that you would be a good one to ask the question. Would the idea of a civil partnership that is recognized with the same legal rights and obligations as a marriage be an acceptable alternative? I realize that it is better than what we have now, but how would you feel about that option if it were available?
Actually the cost would be very low. You just add another law that says as an alternative to marriage we now have a civil union with all the same rights and obligations as marriage. Three seconds on a word processing program. Okay so maybe not that fast, but it could be done. My thoughts on the civil union is just that it would be a possible way to provide some level of satisfaction to both sides.
*LOL*.. you don't think politicians would let that happen do you. Things that should be cheap cost a hell of a lot more when any government gets involved *L*
Oh yeah I can see this coming now on both sides of the border. We would have to have a "Department of Civil Unions" to oversee this new venture. It would have an annual budget of $45 billion and 20,000 employees to oversee the administration of this new law. The IRS would add 10,000 employees to make sure no tax evasion would occur by people claiming to be part of a civil union. We would have to add new courts to administer the splits to civil unions because divorce can only be between a man and a woman. Also the courts would be inundated with suits for others who want a civil union with inanimate objects because now we have defined something that is a legal marriage but isn't called a marriage. Okay, I guess it wouldn't be cheap!
Now you've got the idea. I just finished reading a great book called "A Soldier First" by Rick Hilliar. He was the last Chief of Defense Staff officer (the top soldier of the CF). In it he talked about how every initiative he started or tried to start would either end up creating an entire bureaucracy around it so politicians could get their names attached to it or politicians that wanted it to fail would put up all kinds of blocks and try to sabotage any progress. The cost of this childishness is HUGE.
