[ExI] Same Sex Marriage (was Re: Call To Libertarians)

[Darren Greer]

On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 1:47 PM, Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com> wrote:


Yes. The point would be of course that of liberalising succession law,
> not of extending access to marriage.
>

   Agreed. A few other changes to certain laws either recognizing the rights
of consenting adults--any consenting adults-- in relationships are equal to
those that are married would also be nice. (Taxes. Health benefits.)

>
> I appreciate the feelings of "discrimination" a gay may perceive in
> its ability to have a same-sex, formally monogamous, theoretically
> long-term, relationship "blessed"
>

It's really all about the money and the property. At least for those I know
and myself. Someone else mentioned the fact that why aren't the same tax
breaks that married couples get extended to single people. I agree with that
also. The modern marriage ceremony was deliberately devised by the Catholic
church to have control over its populace. Seems to me the government has
taken over that role. The idea of a legally binding union between two people
that cannot be undone unless you fill out some paperwork and hire a lawyer
is quite absurd, when you think about it. Doesn't say much for the sanctity
of a union before 'God' or anyone else, including the participants. In the
end, God doesn't get much say. The courts do.


As a second best, I am all in favour of making the social norms
> involved in marriage simply implode by allowing gay, incestuous,
> chaste, pedophilic, poligynic, polyandric, group, post-mortem,
> inter-species weddings. Nice ceremonies are not to be denied to
> anybody.
>

I had to read this a couple of times before I could respond. I have heard a
similar "if we allow gay marriage the next thing will be pedophilia and
bestiality" argument before, usually by fundamentalist Christians. Whether
it was ironic or not (and I admit to sometimes having a hard time
determining that on the 'net, as someone mentioned yesterday), I'll go out
on a limb and say I'd also let every social norm associated with marriage
implode as well, by sanctioning any union a person wanted to make, *as long*
as it was with another consenting adult or adults. That rules out pedophilia
and bestiality and necrophilia (though if you really wanted to you, you
could in my books as it's lifeless matter. No dinner party invitations
though.) The other unmentionables you could deal with though laws to help
ensure they didn't happen. Incest is a strange beast. I read once that it is
the only universal sexual taboo, for obvious evolutionary reasons. I find it
repulsive and rife with the possibility of coercion and corruption and maybe
for that reason alone it is illegal and should stay that way.  But if
marriage was entirely deregulated, society might have to just put up with it
occasionally. As for inter-species, my own standards are a little higher
than that given the current selection. Though an inter-stellar future may
hold some intriguing possibilities. :)

In the end though, there is some value to having limits and regulation. But
the regulation must be fluid and subject to change. And the question that
must be asked is what is the law or regulation based on? Is there a good
social reason for it, like the strictures against pedophilia and incest and
bestiality? Or is it mounted on some outdated prejudice or concept that
might have been valid five hundred years ago when the law was instituted and
when bible was taken literally by practically everyone? For me, when it
comes to social stuff, I watch the fundamentalist Christians. If they are
the only ones screaming about its removal, it's probably a morally outdated
law that should be struck from the books.

Hey, it works for me.

darren

>
>
>
> --
> Stefano Vaj
>
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>



-- 
*There is no history, only biography.*
*
*
*-Ralph Waldo Emerson
*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20110228/0fc22240/attachment.html>