Mermaid Musings

hooray for domestic partnerships in oregon.

after much legal wrangling (mostly defending our petition system to out of state christian evangelists) Oregon’s domestic partnership law went into effect and queer couples can enjoy almost the same rights as straight ones. almost.

i tried to find something inspiring on queer assimilation that i could expound upon to no avail. this whole marriage rights struggle just leaves me uninspired. primarily because i don’t see why married people of any stripe should have access to more resources or rights than i do. marriage should be a private contract between two individuals and at most be conducted as a matter of faith. I don’t really understand where or why the state should have anything to do with it.

I’ve heard the arguments about child support and all that, but the truth is if children were valued by our society, if motherhood was valued by our society, if our god damned society gave a shit at all about taking care of people, it wouldn’t matter who the father was or whether or not he was around. we would just prioritize meeting the needs of children and the adults who care for them (which is most often their mother, sister, aunt or grandmother).

it only because we live in a society that does not value women or value caretaking (of children, the elderly, the infirm, etc) that we need the state to track down paternal responsibility.

Anyway, back to the assimilation of gay marriage. I am truly happy for all the same sex couples that have wanted and needed the legal protections that the new domestic partnership status will give them. I am also truly hoping that as a movement we can start working on more liberation issues. I hope we can stop trying to be “just like straight people” so they will accept us. We are who we are and we have a right to love who we want to love, regardless of whether or not we choose to play the committed-for-live-monogamy game.