|
NewsTimesLIVE.com
Rewarding to perform
same-sex civil unions
Letter To The Editor,
newstimeslive.com from the Web. October 6, 2007
Oct. 1 marked the second anniversary
for Connecticut's civil union law. So it was especially wonderful for me
to officiate as a justice of the peace at a civil union recently for two men who
have been coupled for more than seven years. They decided to move to
Connecticut in part because of its civil union law.
The overwhelming majority of the same-sex couples I perform civil unions for
have lived together as partners in life for many years, so the civil union
ceremony is an important contractual formality for personal, familial, cultural,
spiritual and financial reasons to many same-sex couples.
It's very rewarding for me to perform marriages for opposite-sex couples and
civil unions for same-sex couples. But my joy is tempered because I know
that separate laws aren't equal laws and the differences make for second-class
status for same-sex couples and their families.
And while in Connecticut there's marriage equality of sorts, for the federal
government of a secular democracy to continue to deny same-sex couples all the
federal marriage rights afforded to opposite-sex couples is a travesty.
If you have any doubts about the societal importance of state and federal
marriage equality in law for same-sex couples, please join me when I officiate
at a civil union between two men or two women because your doubts will
disappear, your own marriage will be strengthened, and you will defend marriage
equality for all loving and caring couples.
(Emphasis Added)
Joseph A. Mustich
WASHINGTON, CONN.
Posted Oct. 5, 2007
|
