A common canard among those against gay marriage and civil unions is that, well, all of those things that gay couples are looking for — power of attorney, inheritance rights, survivor benefits, etc. — can all be handled without using the “M” word, or even the “CU” words, through contracts and other legal arrangements. Right? So why rock the boat and insist on constitutional protections and the like? Huh?<\/p>\n
Well, probably because of cretinous moves like this, the “Marriage Affirmation Act<\/a>” just passed by the Virginia General Assembly.<\/p>\n A civil union, partnership contract or other arrangement between persons of the same sex purporting to bestow the privileges or obligations of marriage is prohibited. Any such civil union, partnership contract or other arrangement entered into by persons of the same sex in another state or jurisdiction shall be void in all respects in Virginia and any contractual rights created thereby shall be void and unenforceable.<\/p>\n Virginia already doesn’t recognize civil unions (let alone gay marriages). What the bill seems to do is allow the legislature and courts to void any sort of marriage-like agreement or contract between same-sex couples<\/a>. <\/p>\n Once this bill is enacted, it will likely deprive gay and lesbian Virginians of some of the few choices that they currently have to protect their families including: Isn’t that nice?<\/p>\n While one might think that Equality Virginia is exagerrating, there’s plenty of legal analysis <\/a>to indicate they’re not. Hell, the way it’s written it could have serious effects on all Virginians<\/a>, by assaulting basic contract law.<\/p>\n So remember that next time someone talks about how gay rights is all a lot of legalistic kerfluffle, and they have the same protections and abilities to contract up their relationships as anyone else. <\/p>\n Jefferson must be spinning in his grave.<\/p>\n (via Julia)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A common canard among those against gay marriage and civil unions is that, well, all of those things that gay couples are looking for — power of attorney, inheritance rights,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,718,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gay-stuff","category-marriage-equality","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9441,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/06\/believe_what_we.html","url_meta":{"origin":5231,"position":0},"title":"Believe what we do, not what we say","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 6-Jul-06 9:44am","format":false,"excerpt":"In the various flurry of gay marriage\/partnership laws that are fluttering about this election season, there tend to be three categories: Proposals to allow gay marriage or some sort of...","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8318,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/12\/16\/gay_couple_demo.html","url_meta":{"origin":5231,"position":1},"title":"Gay couple demonstrates they are just as deserving of marriage as straights …","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 16-Dec-05 1:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"... by demonstrating they can screw it up, just like straights. A lesbian couple who entered into the nation's first same-sex civil union are splitting up amid allegations of violent...","rel":"","context":"In "Marriage Equality"","block_context":{"text":"Marriage Equality","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/marriage-equality"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12385,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/05\/16\/more_on_the_california_ga.html","url_meta":{"origin":5231,"position":2},"title":"More on the California gay marriage ruling","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 16-May-08 8:50am","format":false,"excerpt":"Couple of good articles in the LA Times about the state supreme court decision yesterday that overturned the legal ban on gay marriage. It's an instant presidential campaign issue, for...","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5435,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/03\/11\/changing_the_mi.html","url_meta":{"origin":5231,"position":3},"title":"Changing the Middle Ground","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 11-Mar-04 5:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Was it only July 2000? I mean, it seems like forever ago that Vermont established its civil union law. And you'd have thought it was the End of Western Civilization....","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14417,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/04\/02\/marriage-equality-in-sweden-neither-fire-nor-brimstone-sighted.html","url_meta":{"origin":5231,"position":4},"title":"Marriage Equality in Sweden — neither fire nor brimstone sighted","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 2-Apr-09 11:42am","format":false,"excerpt":"Nor earthquakes, pillars of fire, hails of frogs, nor any of the other dire warnings of what happens when God's Will is Thwarted. The change in the law, which currently allows gay couples to register unions but not formal marriage, comes into force on May 1 this year under the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5479,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/03\/04\/if_it_walks_dow.html","url_meta":{"origin":5231,"position":5},"title":"If it walks down the aisle like a duck …","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Mar-04 10:12am","format":false,"excerpt":"John Kerry has (maybe) backed making state gay civil unions functionally equivalent to marriage as far as federal rights and benefits are concerned. \"It's the first time in history that...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2004"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2004","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2004"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46730,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5231\/revisions\/46730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– Advanced Medical Directives (also known as Power of Attorney)
\n– Custody decisions and arrangements
\n– Health Insurance coverage through those companies in Virginia currently able to offer benefits to unmarried partners.
\n– Estate planning and wills.
\nBecause each of these “arrangements” grants rights contractually that are otherwise available only through marriage, they can be set aside or voided by the action of the General Assembly.<\/p>\n