[ExI] Change of thought (was Just curious, it's not natural!)

[Emlyn]

On 04/09/07, spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:
> If gay marriage becomes legal, would that problem be worse?  Could a sick
> rich person marry her grandson's girlfriend in order to provide them with a
> generous pension while they are in their twenties?  Is it any different than
> the kinds of abuses that could theoretically be pulled off now?  For
> instance, an old sick person could marry her granddaughter's boyfriend in a
> fake marriage, while the young couple still carries on as before.  So from a
> social security pension point of view (the only reason I care about who is
> allowed to marry) would gay marriage have any impact?  Does Europe have
> similar issues?
>
> spike

Fake marriages are something that various government institutions deal
with already (eg: for immigration, and here for family payment,
austudy (that loophole might be closed now), many other miscellaneous
welfare benefits).

One of the big motivators for legalising gay marriage, of course, is
that there are a whole bunch of entirely reasonable benefits available
only to married couples, not the least of which is being treated as
family members in hospital, and estate going to the spouse in case of
no will (that's correct no?). Bring it on, I say, it's just ridiculous
that gay marriages don't have the same standing as hetero ones.

Emlyn

-- 
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