Monday, August 3, 2009

Domestic Partnership

I was recently shopping for car insurance. Mine expired in July, so I was doing my yearly price check. On one site, as I was filling out their questioneer, they asked about marital status. Apparantly you are a higher risk being divorced over being married, but that is for another post. Anyway, one of the options on this particular site was "domestic partnership". I liked that, because I am neither single, nor married. Calling Wes my boyfriend sounds oh so very 11th grade. Especially after living together for a year. So I asked myself, do we qualify? I mean, most of the time, domestic patnership is a label given to same sex relationships. But, if I am living with, and commited to a person, isn't that precisely what we are, domestic partners? We share a house, bills, a blended family, chores, stress, money woes, pets, and all that other stuff. The only difference from us and a married couple is that we haven't made a public statement in front of friends and family, and clergy or legal authority that we will love honor cherish till death so us part. I don't want to down size marriage here. We are very careful not to present ourselves as married, because we aren't. We might be one day, but for now, we aren't.
But, just because we aren't married, does that mean we shouldn't be considered when it comes to certain things that are preserved for immediate family only, or for discounts that occur when you are married? So that has me thinking about the whole same sex marriage debate. I know I'm stepping into some murky waters here, but have to say, if two people love each other and want to get married, who am I to say they can't? How does it insult my marriage or relationship if two men wnat the same right to marry the one they love as I am? If a church has an issue, that's fine, then the church can chose not to officiate over the marriage, but where does a democratic government of a country that holds equal rights as one of its biggest concerns get off telling a same sex couple that the LAW does not allow them to share the same legal rights as other commited couples?
I'm just saying, if I ought to be able to use the domestic partnership title, why can't someone else get married?

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