Logic and definitions

[redbird]

[Trying to be amused instead of, or as well as, disgusted]

OK. So, the bigoted portion of the Texas electorate, working with the illiterate portion of the State Legislature [about which, see Molly Ivins, passim], has eliminated civil marriage in Texas. That's pretty clear: A is A, marriage is identical to marriage, and the amendment says that Texas may not recognize anything "similar or identical to marriage".

Who will file suit demanding that Texas stop issuing marriage licenses, or doing any of the other things that a state does based on marriage, is an interesting question.

But what I'm wondering is, while we know what "identical" means, what counts as "similar" in this context? A Vermont civil union, almost certainly--that's what it's aimed at, after all. Domestic partnership, ditto. But what about, oh, the legal document someone I knew drew up, years ago, designating his best friend as his legal next of kin? They weren't lovers--Richard just wanted someone he trusted to make legal and medical decisions if he wasn't capable of doing so. A will that designates someone other than a blood relative as guardian for a minor child? Joint ownership of a house?

There's money in this for lawyers, sure enough.

Comments

[callunav.livejournal.com]

Wills and contracts and other legal documents attempting to identify someone who is not legally kin as functioning in a kin-like way (for instance, guardianship of a child) tend to fail, from what I've heard. I mean, it won't fail if no one contests it, but quite aside from irate family members, even the state can contest something.

For this reason, long before gay marriage was on the horizon, Massachusetts became one of the few (there may be one other?) states to institute the legal convention of 2nd parent adoption. This was open to queer couples, friends, unmarried het couples, etc. If someone who is not married to the custodial (usually biological) parent fills a parental role in a child's life, that person can beomce the adopted *second* parent. This means that if the first parent dies, the child automatically goes into the custody of the other parent, exactly as though the two parents had ben a married couple.

I imagine that 2nd parent adoption might also be considered to be 'similar' to marriage, especially if it was seen as being primarily a tool for queer couples to ensure their rights as parents.

This makes me spit, by the way, but there it is.

I accept that gay marriage is going to take time, spreading across the country, and that it will be controversial and problematic for quite a while to come. If most or all of the states in the union would ratify 2nd parent adoption, I'd feel much less pressure about the rest of it. Do you know how crazy it makes me to think that in most states, if I had a child and raised that child with Julian, and I died, social services would be more likely to place the child with my mother than let him/her remain with Julian?

Reason # 532 to be cautious about moving out of MA.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

...of course, the adoption means lots of other things, too, not just who the child goes to if the primary parent dies. It means the second parent can, without difficulty, give authorization for medical treatment, be involved in the educational planning, and so forth, none of which is an option for a "friend of the family."

[drplokta]

Er, what happened to Article IV Section1 of the US Constitution, which was presumably intended to avoid precisely this kind of situation? Did it get repealed while I wasn't looking?

[redbird]

U.S. Constitution? What's that?

[ala-too.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting for a heterosexual couple who doesn't want to have a religious ceremony to contest it.

On a more positive front, all of Schwarzenegger California propositions went down in flames including both the one which would have allowed him to override the legislature and the one which would have rewritten the CA Constitution to make abortion illegal. He's decided he needs to talk to the State Legislator all of a sudden. :)