Mark and I have been together for more than 7 years. We have just adopted a baby girl who is the love of our lives. We live in a small town in the North East with our three dogs and one obnoxious cat who believes himself to be a dog. This blog is set up to express my views and my feelings on a day to day basis. I will write about things that make me happy, sad, and angry. Hope you enjoy and get outraged a little.
So Michigan has given us another reason for us never to move there. In a 5-2 decision, the Michigan Supreme Court has decided that Mark and I do not deserve to have domestic partner benefits. What does this mean? The court decided that a 2004 ban on "gay marriage" also allows governments and state universities from offering health insurance to the partners of gay workers. So up to 375 gay couple have lost the right to support their spouse with health insurance. If Mark and I lived in Michigan with OUR daughter, I would have no health insurance. If Mikayla was adopted in Michigan by us (a loving couple that has been in a relationship for eight years) only one of us would be her "legal" parent. That person would probably have been me and then she would have lost her insurance as well.
This is what people consider equal rights. Just because the religious right feels that my relationship with Mark (that has probably lasted longer than most straight couples) is evil or worst than terrorism, we lose what most people take for granted.
Justice Stephen Markman, writing for the majority, said that while marriages and domestic partnerships aren't identical, they are similar. He was joined by Chief Justice Clifford Taylor and Justices Maura Corrigan, Elizabeth Weaver and Robert Young Jr.
Dissenting Justices Michael Cavanagh and Marilyn Kelly said the constitutional amendment prohibits nothing more than same-sex marriages or similar unions. They argued that circumstances surrounding the election suggest Michigan voters didn't intent to take away people's benefits.
Once again we visit the reason (one of many) why Mark and I will never live in a state that does not allow (or acknowledge) that there can be a meaningful relationship between people of the same sex. On many occasions my mother (mainly) keeps asking us why we will not move back to Michigan. My father jokes that we should move back to Florida so they have someplace warm to visit during the winter months. The problem is that Florida is one of the worst states to live in if you are not heterosexual. If Mark and I stayed in Florida, yes we would have warm weather (sometimes as bad as Vermont is cold) but we would never had been "allowed" to adopt Mikayla. This is something that many people don't understand.
And its not just about adoption. Its about not being recognized as a "true" family member. Not being able to know what happened to your loved one, your significant other, your partner. That is just what happened to Eric Breidenbaugh when he had to find out that his partner of 6 years and his partner's parents were killed in a plane crash.
His partner and his partner's parents were all missing – hours overdue from a family flight aboard a small private plane.
Eric called his local airport, near Pinellas Park, Florida, to see if they had any information. They did, but they wouldn't give it to him. They said he was "not an actual family member," so they couldn't tell him whether his partner was alive or dead.
He searched the TV news, where he soon saw footage of the plane he himself had ridden in many times. That was how he found out that his life partner of six years, Joseph Bellamy, had been killed with his parents in a plane crash.
Why is it OK for people who say they are following the "Word of God" to take away my rights? These people pick and choose what they want to follow from the Bible and ignore other parts. Let's look at some of what people are ignoring from the Bible:
Leviticus, chapter 11
7: And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you. 26: The carcases of every beast which divideth the hoof, and is not clovenfooted, nor cheweth the cud, are unclean unto you: every one that toucheth them shall be unclean.
Leviticus, chapter 15
19: And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even. 20: And every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean: every thing also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean. 21: And whosoever toucheth her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 22: And whosoever toucheth any thing that she sat upon shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 23: And if it be on her bed, or on any thing whereon she sitteth, when he toucheth it, he shall be unclean until the even.
So your telling me that these people that believe the Bible when it comes to homosexuality, don't see anything wrong with the other sins they are committing. If you eat pork, you are unclean. While a women is menstruating she is unclean for seven days. If anyone has sex with her, they are then unclean and this is a sin against their lord! But we all know this. The problem is that people are too attached to a book that was written over two hundred years AFTER their savior, Jesus, died. You cannot pick and choose.
So back to Eric. If you want to help the Human Rights Coalition (HRC) stop bigotry, then donate today. Either your time or money.
It's simply wrong that GLBT Americans should be treated like second-class citizens, denied the right to care for their loved ones. Yet even in Eric's' own state of Florida, anti-GLBT groups won't rest. They're trying to write a ban on marriage equality into the constitution, and get right-wing voters to the polls while they're at it.
We need to strengthen our field program so we can fight this battle and others, including electing fair-minded candidates and passing key legislation. Your activism and your commitment are critical, as is the financial support so instrumental to our efforts.
The coming weeks are critical. In Florida, the referendum to enshrine discrimination against GLBT couples in the constitution has officially qualified for the November ballot, and opponents are already gearing up and spending cash. A dirty campaign is likely. And in California, right-wing groups are collecting signatures for a similar measure, with a deadline of mid-April.
If either measure passes, our community could be unable to pass laws preventing heartbreaking stories like Eric Breidenbaugh's. Basic information or access to your partner denied in an emergency. Right-wing extremists that much closer to making inequality permanent nationwide.
