Same sex marriages you say? Why should I have the right to stop two people who love each other from getting married? Why do our lawmakers who have been following the premise of separation of church and state feel that they have the right to deny marriage to anybody? This, I really don’t understand.
Same sex marriages do not bother me. I don’t feel that they threaten my marriage to my husband in any way. When you really think about it, what does gay marriages cost me? America? Nothing! I have a great problem with some individuals who feel that their beliefs are worth more than others. I am affected by the lack of rights afforded to non-married couples everyday. I do not agree with it at all.
Working in health care, I do have the problem with non-married straight and gay couples not enjoying the same rights as married couples. For example, you or your spouse comes to the local emergency department tonight after being in a car accident. The victim is unable to talk or make any health care decisions. If you are the wife or the husband, what you say is what the medical professionals will do. If you say that you are the girlfriend of 22 years, we as health care providers are required by law to find the oldest child or the victims parents. We cannot honor any requests by boyfriends or girlfriends no matter how long you have been together. Some health care providers may not even give you any information.
If you are the girlfriend for the last 22 years and his oldest son shows up and tells you to get out, the hospital has to honor that too. I have seen this situation more than once both with straight and gay couples. There is nothing more crushing than being the significant other in a relationship where the extended family doesn’t agree with your relationship. Many times the family is actually estranged, and they have no idea of what the victim would want but they throw the significant other out of the hospital. You as the significant other have no legal rights.
Now it is totally different if you have a health care power of attorney. If you have this piece of legal paperwork, I as a health care provider can then let you make decisions and give you information. Anyone who is in a long term relationship and is not married needs to have the health care power of attorney drawn up!
It doesn’t cost me anything to let two people who love each other get married. It could possibly affect the amount of taxes they pay but hey some people living in the US don’t pay taxes anyway. It wont affect health insurance since we are moving toward government sponsored health care. So what is the cost? I don’t understand the lawmakers imposing their ethics and values on us as everyday citizens.