RE: [lpsf-discuss] Gay Marriage

We can't "make a clear break with the past" and "forge a clear path for the
future" until all you straight married folks tear up your marriage licenses,
Mike.

Until that day comes, while you guys are still receiving preferential
treatment from the government (whether you want it or not), we have no
choice but to fight for equality as our first priority.

You can bring in a wife from another country and not worry about her being
deported, but I cannot bring in a husband from another country without that
worry. Put yourself in our shoes for a second. If the only marriages
considered legal were same-sex ones, and the only way to keep the person you
loved in this country was to get married, would you not be demanding
marriage equality as a higher priority than small government? Immigration
is only one of over 1500 rights and privileges only granted to opposite-sex
married couples in this country, and many of those things are simply taken
for granted by straight people. We can't even get our most activist
Libertarians (from half of the LPSF ExCom all the way to Presidential
Candidate Russo) to unanimously support open borders, so why even suggest
that option as a realistic alternative to letting gays marry so we can keep
our spouse here in our home? Let's face reality -- equal marriage is the
only way many of us gays will ever experience within our lifetimes any of
these rights currently afforded to straights. Do you suggest sacrificing
the rights of the next couple generations of gays in the hopes that we'll
someday achieve Libertarian Utopia? I hope you'll pardon me if I disagree.

If, all of the sudden, the Supreme Court gave Congress the choice -- either
take away all of these rights from straights or give them to gays -- which
option do you think the masses would flood the streets in support of? Do
you think all of the opposite-sex binational couples would just part
company? Do you think all of the stay-at-home moms would go out and get
jobs for their own health insurance coverage (you do realize that several
states tax domestic partner insurance benefits when they don't tax spousal
insurance benefits, and Virginia bans domestic partner insurance benefits
outright, don't you?) There are several hundred state and federal tax laws,
statuses, and procedures that are based on marriage alone, for which there
simply does not exist any way for a same-sex couple to hire a lawyer and
fill out the appropriate paperwork to receive equal rights. (Not that this
would be fair either, since we'd effectively be double-taxed in paying the
lawyer's fees on top of our regular taxes, while we had to subsidize the
government giving these rights to straights for free.)

Again, until all straight marriages end, gays have no choice but to fight
for equality within this existing system. It's a matter of survival for our
families. Wouldn't you do whatever was possible, even if it wasn't strictly
libertarian, to try to protect your family? Then don't expect any less of
us. We're only human.

Rob