A personal example

[awfulhorrid]

I am writing a thesis for my Composition I class with a topic of "Families in Contemporary Society." My working thesis statement is fairly simple: "Traditional marriage does not fit the needs of all potential relationships in contemporary society." I'm considering aspects of same gender relationships and polyamorous ones, but I'm also looking at

Comments

[delazan]

File a complaint. That'll teach the bitch about the reality of modern relationships.

FWIW: I don't have a "blood" relative listed as my emergency contact, as I, too, don't trust my blood relatives to know, let alone respect, my wishes. I have my husband and FiL listed, and I do trust them.
-L.

Re: What Delazan said

[awfulhorrid]

Immediately after posting this last week, I called the patient advocate for the North Chicago VA system. (They're the ones that administer the Kenosha clinic.) He agreed with me wholeheartedly and promised to make a general statement to the staff about it. I now have his direct number and if it happens again, I'll have a name for him.

I'm more than stubborn enough to tell people like that to shove off, but I know that some people aren't, even if they are former military.

Thanks for the offer: I hope it won't be needed!

[awfulhorrid]

I have filed a complain, actually. I called the patient advocate for the area and he agreed with me 100% as well as confirmed that there was no such requirement in place. I do have to say that I don't think she was bitching about modern relationships so much as being a petty minded bureaucrat with illusions of power.

I think for their purpose, a spouse or possibly even an in-law would be acceptable, she was simply specifying 'blood relative' since she'd already determined I'm not married.

Bah! :)

[tarrestrial]

Are you planning on addressing transgender or genderqueer in the paper? I've heard of cases where one spouse transitions after the marriage, thus creating a same-gender marriage where a heterosexual relationship had previously existed. Just a thought.

[awfulhorrid]

Not in this paper, no. This one simply isn't that long or complex! I'm also trying to be a little more generic about 'nontraditional' relationships.

[tarrestrial]

Fair enough. As someone else is covering same-sex marriage, perhaps focusing more on poly groups might be a good idea.

[terheyt]

You really should look at how modern Quebec society has been handling things since the Quiet Revolution in the 60-70s. Last year, 63% of couples living together were not married. The average length of time that non-married couples had been living together was either 12 or 13 years (I'll have to look it up, and send you a llink to the citation

[stormdog]

Wow; that sounds wonderful! I'll have to ask my Canadian girlfriend and see if she's familiar with any of that!

[terheyt]

If she's a Canadian history fan, or living here, she probably will. If not, probably not. I grew up right across the river from Quebec, and did a lot of history reading, and followed politics closely, and being married to another woman made me specifically interested in gender/sexuality laws, and still didn't learn about most of this until after I moved to Montreal.

Les deux solitudes...

[stormdog]

Thanks for mentioning it. It's definitely something that both of us might be interested in reading more about.

[isolde_deely]

*hugs* I was married before becoming poly, so don't have a lot of those hurdles. I'm sorry, sweetie...