Yesterday Governor Markell held a meeting with state bloggers to talk about state issues. In the meeting I asked the governor if he supported marriage equality and he stated that he supports the Civil Union legislation being discussed in Dover now.. When I challenged him as to why he didn’t support full marriage equality, he stated that he hadn’t thought through it.
As I told the governor I’m not a fan of civil unions. It’s not that I don’t support the idea behind them but I think it still puts LGBT people in a second, “lesser” status. Civil unions still preserve the idea that opposite sex marriage is somehow better and purer and allows people to preserve their prejudice. It is ridiculous to me to argue about the sanctity of Newt Gingrich’s third marriage or Rush Limbaugh’s fourth marriage.
I like to tell people that my husband and I have a civil union. We were married by a judge at a B&B. One could argue that marriage is a religious ritual but it’s already too late. The state is already in the “marriage” business, recognizing marriage as a contract that comes with certain rights and privileges. Civil unions are supposed to recognize the legal contract while preserving the word “marriage” for heterosexual couples.
In my mind it’s a simple issue of fairness. If some couples are allowed marriage, it should be available to same sex couples as well. Our rights are supposed to be for everyone. Rights aren’t something that should be put to a vote.
If civil unions is the only thing we can get, of course I support this. But I can’t get excited about relegating same sex couples to a better (perhaps significantly better) second class status.