The Law

Today, I heard a story in NPR about Oregon will be extending rights to domestic partnerships -- such as survivorship rights or child custody rights. The state is careful to point out that this is not recognizing gay marriage - but that couples that do not marry (gay or otherwise) do require legal remedies/protections that are normally extended to married couples.

This got me thinking about the living aspects of our laws. Yes, our laws are living. They grow, they change, the reflect the society we become. When the men writing the constitution were hard at work, they could not have anticipated that someday we would need laws to protect children from Internet predators. This is why they created a function by which our Constitution and laws could be updated and changed.

Our laws are a reflection of our values and our condition as a society. Some aspects of our laws are judgemental - such as the penal code. Other aspect of our law merely create a standard under which citizens can find remedy or protections. This part of our law isn't judgemental.

This is why I'm a tad baffled at the push from some quarters to make gay marriages illegal or deny protections to gay couples. First, there are long lasting, monogamous gay and not-gay couples all over. Some choose for themselves the securities and instant social recognition of marriage - others are denied it or reject it for themselves. But, this doesn't mean those couples are less worthy of inheriting shared properties. It doesn't mean that children of these relationships are just out of luck if their parents split up -- one parent isn't just going to disappear.

Laws extending rights and protections to unmarried but committed couples/families is more about creating a structure for difficult situations than it is about threatening the marriages of those folks lucky enough to have the right to get married.

Just as we are quick to create laws regulating where convicted sex offenders can or cannot live - we should also be quick to offer all families equal protections under the law.