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Loading ...Proposal to strike ‘marriage’ from Calif. law
03.11.2009 8:22am EDT
(Sacramento, California) California’s top election official says supporters can start collecting signatures for a proposed ballot measure to strike the word “marriage” from all state laws.
Supporters of this ballot measure want to replace it with the term “domestic partnership,” while keeping all the rights of marriage in place.The proposal is in response to a voter-approved gay marriage ban that passed in November. The new measure would repeal the ban, and define domestic partnerships as unions between all couples, regardless of sexual orientation.
Secretary of State Debra Bowen said Tuesday that supporters must gather nearly 700,000 signatures by early August to get the initiative on the ballot.
The measure is the grassroots effort of two heterosexual college students.
The problem with this is that then heterosexual couples would lose the 1,340+ federal rights that come along wth civil marriage as well as recognition of their relationships internationally as well as in 20 + states domestically.
This approach makes the same mistake religious conservatives make— both conflate civil marriage with religious marriage. Civil marriages in the U.S. are already completely seperate entitites from religious marriage. Atheists get married. A license from the state is what is required. It has nothing to do with anyone’s religion.
This is NOT true in much of Europe where there are often state churches. For example, when Norway passed marriage equality they instructed the Lutheran Church– the state church of Norway, what to do saying they must allow local congregations to choose to marry same sex couples.
Nothing of the sort is possible in the U.S. where we have no state religion and we have seperation of church and state.
This approach is nonsensical. Civil marriage has long existed in religiously diverse societies and this has often incuded both same and opposite sex couples both crossculturally and transhistorically.
In fact, the oldest civil marriage records we have are clay tablets documenting civil marriages and related decisions of the courts from ancient Sumeria around 3,000 years ago and yes they include both same sex and opposite sex couples under the same civil contract just as many other cultures have done by contract and/or cultural tradition before and/or since.
As it says in Ezekiel, “there is nothing new under the sun”. That includes same sex marriage which is only new to us because of the wests uniquely extreme heterosexism and homophobia which had been exported to much of the world via colonialism making it seem universal while transhistorically and cross culturally it appears the obverse to be closer to the truth.
This is a disastrous move, which will play right into the hands of opponents of same-sex marriage. It “proves” that queers and our friends really are anti-family.
I support this because I support equality. Either give everyone a marriage, or give everyone a domestic partnership. The government should not differentiate between ssm and opposite sex marriages.
I would love to have the word marriage, but as long as were on par with our heterosexual counterparts…im FINE! Another reason why I support this is becasue it further removes the church from our government. Marriage is a sacrament the government has no buisness tending to, even though it see it as civil institution.
Whats next civil communion, for some people and crackers for others. Get the church out of the government.
Domestic Partnerships for everybody. I will also support the amendment to overturn prop 8 that will likely land on the ballot.
As an ardent supporter of gay marriage, I do not support this. I don’t think it’s a bad idea. I just don’t see it catching on nationwide and I don’t want to be domestic-partnered in CA when people in MA can be married. I want full equality throughout U.S. I do not consider the word “marriage” to be owned by any religion. Let them make up some other word—how about “faith-base partnered”. For the state to truly get out of the “marriage” business–that means married, or domestic-partnered people don’t get any special rights or benefits. I don’t see that happening. I want FULL GAY MARRIAGE EQUALITY including use of the common word to describe our relationships.
Blank petitions are available on their website as a PDF document.
http://www.dompar.org/Domestic_Partnership.pdf
Signatures for a California ballot measure cannot be aquired through a website to my knowledge. The Secretary of State has to be able to verify the signature. That is why no forwarded e-mail petitions in California have any weight.
Below is a link to their facebook page, which seems to be the exsisting “hub”. I have also included a note from Ali Shams regarding the collection of signatures (note is dated today)
“So we are about to go official in collecting signatures. We are almost done setting up our website: dompar.org. There will be directions on how you can become part of this important movement in solving this problematic issue. We appreciate all the feedback thus far.”
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=42833687407&ref=nf
Heard this yesterday… WHERE DO I SIGN?
Great, might as well call “marriage” what it really is in the eyes of the law.
I wish it was like that everywhere. Marriage should be kept in the church and everyone should have a domestic partnership.
http://stuffqueerpeopleneedtoknow.wordpress.com/
Why go through all this BULLSH*T when boycotts work soooo much better! Enough of this pussyfootin’ ’round the bush Bull! It’s time to boycott the half assed hick state of Californication! Let the breeders know that their bigoted ignorance carries REAL ECONOMIC consequences! First we start with the red varietals(SP?) then work our way down to the horrid, west coast white wines! LOL! Then we can focus on silicon valley!
THIS IS ALL I COULD FIND–AT LEAST WE HAVE NAMES…
“One of the topics of discussion at last week’s Supreme Court hearing on Proposition 8 was whether the government should be in the marriage business.
Well, on Tuesday two people filed an initiative to get the state of California out of the business altogether.
The initiative, filed by Kaelan Housewright and Ali Shams, replaces the term “marriage” with “domestic partnership” throughout California statutes, while preserving the rights of marriage.
Shams and Housewright are students, 22 and 21 respectively, the AP reported.
The next step would be to gather roughly 700,000 valid signatures to place the measure on the ballot — a tall task.
But hey, they have a Facebook group…”
…sack of hammers…mean anything to ya?
Um…off the top of my head, I’d say contact Secretary of State Debra Bowen’s office, since she’s the one quoted directly in this article.
This is the third place I’ve seen this story and NONE of them offer any direction/information on how to locate or participate in this initiative. Isn’t there a phone number, url, email address, myspace/facebook, SOMETHING that would allow this to be “actionable”. I want to sign. I could easily gather hundreds of signatures (of supportive registered CA voters). What no one is telling us is HOW/WHERE to get started!