http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/genderandsexualitylawblog/2008/10/06/why-the-same-sex-marriage-question-is-hard/ A Forum for Debate of Issues in Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia Law School Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:22:21 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5.2 hourly 1 http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/genderandsexualitylawblog/2008/10/06/why-the-same-sex-marriage-question-is-hard/comment-page-1/#comment-4 Anna Marie Smith Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:20:49 +0000 http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/genderandsexualitylawblog/?p=56#comment-4 In a highly imperfect context, compromise and trade-offs are inevitable. In order to vote in the US, I became a US citizen, even though I had several misgivings about exiting the category of resident foreigner in the midst of an immigration policy that ruthlessly excludes the disadvantaged. Similarly, I have heterosexual friends who got married even though they thoroughly oppose the exclusion of same-sex couples from legal marriage because they could not reasonably afford to forgo health care coverage. In this light, we could approach this question of same-sex marriage as a gateway into a much broader discussion about social change. What transformations are needed such that legal marriage would become increasingly irrelevant? For example, if we had a radical redistributive policy, which entailed aggressive estate taxes, inheritance would be reduced to the transfer of symbolic goods, rather than capital. Blood ties would no longer matter that much in this regard, and resistance to the redefinition of kinship would probably be reduced. In a highly imperfect context, compromise and trade-offs are inevitable. In order to vote in the US, I became a US citizen, even though I had several misgivings about exiting the category of resident foreigner in the midst of an immigration policy that ruthlessly excludes the disadvantaged. Similarly, I have heterosexual friends who got married even though they thoroughly oppose the exclusion of same-sex couples from legal marriage because they could not reasonably afford to forgo health care coverage. In this light, we could approach this question of same-sex marriage as a gateway into a much broader discussion about social change. What transformations are needed such that legal marriage would become increasingly irrelevant? For example, if we had a radical redistributive policy, which entailed aggressive estate taxes, inheritance would be reduced to the transfer of symbolic goods, rather than capital. Blood ties would no longer matter that much in this regard, and resistance to the redefinition of kinship would probably be reduced.

]]> http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/genderandsexualitylawblog/2008/10/06/why-the-same-sex-marriage-question-is-hard/comment-page-1/#comment-3 benjamin Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:39:13 +0000 http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/genderandsexualitylawblog/?p=56#comment-3 This issue is not difficult. Is there any physical/natural purpose -- answer no. Implication it is wrong. Case closed. Quit making the simple difficult. This issue is not difficult. Is there any physical/natural purpose — answer no. Implication it is wrong. Case closed. Quit making the simple difficult.

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