...before it's too late.

[eclective]

I'm having trouble working out how to say this without sounding preachy, or overbearing, or otherwise turning people off. As such, I hope that you'll trust in me for a little while, and bear with me while I try to make a statement that I think is important

Comments

[5tone]

Well, the way it's worked thus far in America is that everyone (or, rather, everyone who's really stressed out about queers settlin' down) just ignores the hypocrisy of that last bit.

[arkofeden]

Oh man, I could not possibly agree with you more. Although I am one of those people who would like for everyone to stop using the term "marriage" and trade it for "civil union" or somesuch; "marriage" has a connection to religious ceremony, which could be why it's such a big-deal issue for so many people (and besides, if it's religious, it's up to the religion/church whether its officials are authorized by their divinity to marry certain people to each other--the state can't force their hand on that

[eclective]

Hmm, that's something. Do living wills cover more minor injuries, though, or cases when the person is conscious and able to make decisions but in a serious condition?

[arkofeden]

Unfortunately, I'm only aware of such things coming into effect when a person is incapacitated and unable to make any decisions on their own. I could see how the line between able and unable might be blurry, though, like if a person was conscious but had to go into emergency surgery right away in order to be saved. I'd hope that the staff would look at one's emergency instructions in those cases, since being under anaesthetic would seem pretty incapacitating. :/

In cases where one's fully awake and able to decide things for themselves, I'd imagine that they'd be able to give the staff orders as to exactly what to do (or call their partners from the hospital themselves, etc.). But this might be the kind of question that I'd actually have to ask a lawyer about, since hospitals sometimes operate using non-Earth logic. ^^

--E.G.

[luinied]

Also, even if you prepare legal documents for the cases you anticipate - and always have them on hand - there are always things you won't think of until they happen. For example, Dan Savage (who is sometimes a jerk, yes) writes about not being able to check in on his son's seriously injured dog because his partner was the one to bring the dog to the vet. Whereas marriage gets to be "default allow" in these cases.

On a vaguely related note, it may be worth noting that California is not the only state with such measures up for a vote this election: Florida and Arizona are also being targeted. California's been getting more attention because it did recently permit same-sex marriage (and because it's California, and people are always paying attention to California), but defeating the other amendments is important, too.

[seika]

I really need some more clarification on how this works, but it's definitely an interesting factoid.

The Supreme Court ruled that because of the equal-rights clause, either everyone had a right to be married or everyone had a right to a domestic partnership. Because Prop 8 doesn't nullify the clause that was the basis of that ruling, it will still stand even if Prop 8 is passed. And because of that ruling, if there are people who don't have a right to be married, then no one has the right to be married (although everyone can have a domestic partnership).

So, if people want to preserve marriage in California, they need to vote no, or else no one will have a legal right to get married. And that goes for the conservative straight traditional church-going folks every bit as much as the gays

[eclective]

Yay, that was what I wanted to know. Thanks for this. I know you'd told me about it, I just didn't have enough of the details down to give a coherent description back.

Also, icon? Oddly appropriate.

[heron61]

Well said, well said indeed.

[nightbluesprite]

As someone who will be voting no on prop. 8 - thank you. You bring up really good points about which more people should be aware.

[eclective]

Really, it's the least I can do. Thank you.