More on Connecticut’s Civil Union Law
After the ignominious decision by the Massachusetts Supremes, along comes Connecticut advancing the homosexual marriage stick a little bit farther. Aside from the Connecticut law granting gays “all the same benefits, protections and responsibilities under law” as heterosexual marriages, the law creates more ambiguity into what constitutes a “marriage” relationship and draws unconventional lines in the sands of American society.
The law prohibits a member of the same sex from entering into a civil union their mother or father, grandmother or grandfather, grandaughter or grandson, aunt or uncle, and/or niece and nephew. Why? Understandably, the law prohibiting two persons of the opposite sex from marrying members of one’s immediate family because (1) it’s gross (2) birth defects and (3) it’s very gross. While mere repulsion might not satisfy the liberal wackos who are designing the destruction of the “traditional” family, does the same level of repulsion apply to civil unions? Why would Connecticut need to draw a prohibitory line based upon generational or blood lines if the two persons entering into a civil union cannot procreate? If marriage laws discriminate because they prevent two men or two women who love each other from “marrying,” why should Connecticut limit an expression of “love” between a woman and her niece but allow such an expression between a woman and her great aunt or a man and his second-cousin? How does Connecuticut justify such legalistic meanspiritedness? Why do the same-sex marriage advocacy groups permit the restrictions?
The answer is strategy. Same-sex marriage (”SSM”) advocates do not attack these generational/blood line restricutions because they are linked to procreation. SSM supporters intensely argue that procreation is a faulty justification for limiting marriage to heterosexual couples because (1) Some couples are infertile, (2) Some couples marry in their golden years, and (3) Some couples use alternative methods of reproduction (invitro fertilization, etc.) that are outside the conjugal relationship. If the procreative link is destroyed in the public’s and legislature’s minds, then SSM becomes a closer reality precisely because SSM does not further procreation and the propagation of the human society within a traditional family relationship.