Thursday, November 3, 2011

Seventy-two

Welcome to the bridge travels today. It's time for a good old fashioned "building or burning bridges blog" equal rights rant. "I am the 99%!" But it's not what you think. It's not about the occupy movement. No, I am among the 99% who usually don't give a flip what the Kardashians are doing. 
This week one of the family members made news beyond the "E!" channel. The same channel that devoted an entire 2 episode special to cover "Kim's Fairytale Wedding." "Over the course of two days, 10.5 million people spent four hours watching Kim Kardashian and NBA player Kris Humphries tie the knot." (10.5 million people? Wow. That is a fairly large % of the 307 million people in the USA. I wonder if that number is worldwide viewers, but I digress). 

Fast forward, and already Kardashian has filed for divorce from her husband of 72 days. 72 days? Most high school freshmen date longer than that. I bet it took longer than 72 days for Kim to plan for her "Fairytale Wedding." I am simply shaking my head. 

And still we live in a country where committed same-sex couples have no federal rights or protections for their committed relationships. Although there are several states in the United States that allow same-sex unions.  

Any 2 opposite-sex individuals who are not blood related can get married (after knowing each other for mere hours) and are immediately afforded 1138 rights and protections for their pairing. Wait, before you give me the biblical mandate that marriage is for "one man & one woman," in this "One Nation Under God" it is not simply one man & one woman who are the privileged class who can be legally married in the USA. No, you can be legally married in America as long as you have surgery to reassign your gender, and then marry one who then has the opposite gender on paper. Even if you are "half male," as long as your gender has been changed on paper, you can be born a woman and eventually legally marry a woman. Or, if you were born male and have gender reassignment surgery and become a female, you can stay married to the woman you originally married. Now, I have no issue with transgender individuals! I do have an issue with the disingenuous "values" crowd who protect the "sanctity of marriage" like it is the "holy grail" -- but only protect it from certain groups of American citizens.  

72 days?? I have been in a relationship with my partner for greater than double 72 months. And yet, we now live in a State where we have zero rights. If one of us dies (or is injured), the other partner is not entitled to SSI, to make medical decisions, to survivor benefits, to the belongings of the other (if family members decide to come in and take over). 
How does any of that make sense? How are the current laws of our Country even defensible? How can politicians in our Country still win elections pretty much on the platform of "protecting traditional marriage"?

Who knows when the change will come. But for now, I have to get back to work to support the family my Country does not acknowledge or protect. Where's the "occupy" protest for that cause?


PS-- Kardashian Apologizes to queers who can't marry — Sort Of ...

   

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