Monday, July 1, 2013

Why I Care About Gay Marriage

(quickie poll to the right.  Does your girl name include a last name?)

I don't have a dog in this hunt.  I do feel like I'm an intermediary, passing the baton from one group to another.

That said, I do care about human rights and equal rights: immigration, civil rights, poverty issues all matter to me.

As we know, sexual orientation and gender identity are independent of each other.  The incidence of

45 categories in Wikipedia
homosexuality within the trans community is about the same as in the civilian population.  Laws vary widely regarding both gay rights and trans rights.  In some states, it's easier to get your gender changed on official documents than it is in others.  Some require surgery, others intent.
In states where gay marriage is not permitted, the documents are vital and sometimes still insufficient.  You may get your driver's license changed to read "female" with a photo of you presenting as a woman but the state might still not permit you to marry a man because your birth certificate says "M".  Others, under the same circumstances, may not permit you to marry a woman.

Gay marriage makes having proper identification less important.  If you're permitted to marry the person of your choice, irregardless of who you are (the right point-of-view, in my opinion) then it doesn't matter what it says on the document you show the court when you get your license.  Your particular church will have it's own rules; that's your personal decision.  It's still easier to change churches than change states (or countries ~ when DOMA was signed into law, gay marriage was not legal in any country on this planet).

So now it's easier for my trans-sisters (and brothers) to follow their hearts.  By allowing man-man or woman-woman marriages, states have opened the door to transman-man or transman-woman or transwoman-man or transwoman-woman or transman-transman or....  And changing gender during the course of a marriage won't change the validity of that union.

And if your state recognises your union, the fed will grant you the same rights and benefits it grants to other state-recognised marriages.

It's good for us, whether you're gay or straight (or other ~ I know I'm being simplistic.  See the image on the right).




2 comments:

  1. I tend to agree that I is a equality issue and that access to marriage should be equal for all, the bill going through the UK parliament at the moment is flawed in that it will still not be equal. For e the main issue though is that currently if one partner in a marriage transitions then the marriage is annulled, leaving the partner with no rights or recognition, and that is wrong!

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