Spread the word!
Apr. 20th, 2010 06:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dark_sinestraI'm posting this link, an utter outrage, because I definitely think the word should be spread. All on my f-list will have already seen it, but I'm hoping others will, too. Regardless of your views on homosexuality or what constitutes marriage, the details of this case should disgust and disturb you if you count yourself among the human population. The fact that legal documents, including power of attorney and medical documents, were completely ignored by county officials to perpetrate what amounts to abduction and violence on these two men who had been together in a loving relationship for 20 years should alarm anyone who has gone through the effort to draw up a living will, an actual will, or any other legal documents detailing who you want in control of you should the unthinkable happen, devastating injury or unconsciousness.
It's bad enough that a perfectly healthy man found himself placed in a nursing home completely against his will, but he was placed in a separate nursing home from his partner so that when his partner died three months later, he wasn't even able to be there with him in his final moments. Had these two men been allowed the right to a legally recognized marriage, this would not have been possible. The county would not have been able to declare these two men to be nothing more than roommates, thereby denying either a legal say in what happened to the other. Those who make the argument that there are mechanisms in place whereby gay couples can obtain protections similar to marriage have just been made liars. These two men did their best to take advantage of just such protections, only to find them completely ignored and disregarded. I am very curious now to know how many others have suffered something similar over the past decade, cases that don't get attention either because they are covered up or both partners die before they can make it to court.
There are several good reasons that the separation of church and state was mandated. I think this serves as an excellent example, as well as an indication of how those lines still get blurred more often than they should and the dangers to freedom and personal liberty posed by theocracies. If the churches have such a huge issue with gay marriage, then fine. Don't perform them. That should have nothing to do with a legally binding contract between two consenting adults. (Or more, but I'll leave my rant about the illegality of polygamy for another time, as I don't want to blur the issue.) It is high time this country abolished marriage as a legal institution and adopted civil unions. Gay or straight, it shouldn't matter. Let two consenting adults have a civil union if they want all the legal protections currently afforded those who are married. Anybody who wants to say they're married under a civil union can say it. It just won't be a legal term, and it won't prevent people from having church ceremonies if they want them.
Every person who hears of this issue should ask themselves how it is that a county government was able to come in and override legal documents, abduct and falsely imprison a healthy man in a managed care facility, illegally seize his property and sell it at auction, and deny him the ability to be with a loved one on his death bed. Ask if it can happen to these two men, what is to prevent it from happening to you? Ask how it is that a court gave them even limited right to seize any of the injured man's assets to pay for care he neither wanted nor requested. Ask how anyone can logically argue that such injustice should even be able to occur in a country that calls itself modern and free based solely on someone's sexual orientation, how gay marriage is in any way, shape, or form a threat to straight marriage, and how long we're going to sit by and let these things happen to our neighbors and friends. Silence is complicity.
While I dearly hope that Clay is vindicated in court, no amount of money will return to him what he has lost or erase this terrible injustice that he has suffered. Like so many who have come before him in the past, women, minorities, and others who are gay, Clay has been thrust upon a path not of his own choosing but that will hopefully in time lead to justice, protection, and rights for those who come after him. Given the rampant prejudices and sexism still alive and well in this country, sadly, it seems that legal protections are only the beginning of true justice, but it would be a start.
It's bad enough that a perfectly healthy man found himself placed in a nursing home completely against his will, but he was placed in a separate nursing home from his partner so that when his partner died three months later, he wasn't even able to be there with him in his final moments. Had these two men been allowed the right to a legally recognized marriage, this would not have been possible. The county would not have been able to declare these two men to be nothing more than roommates, thereby denying either a legal say in what happened to the other. Those who make the argument that there are mechanisms in place whereby gay couples can obtain protections similar to marriage have just been made liars. These two men did their best to take advantage of just such protections, only to find them completely ignored and disregarded. I am very curious now to know how many others have suffered something similar over the past decade, cases that don't get attention either because they are covered up or both partners die before they can make it to court.
There are several good reasons that the separation of church and state was mandated. I think this serves as an excellent example, as well as an indication of how those lines still get blurred more often than they should and the dangers to freedom and personal liberty posed by theocracies. If the churches have such a huge issue with gay marriage, then fine. Don't perform them. That should have nothing to do with a legally binding contract between two consenting adults. (Or more, but I'll leave my rant about the illegality of polygamy for another time, as I don't want to blur the issue.) It is high time this country abolished marriage as a legal institution and adopted civil unions. Gay or straight, it shouldn't matter. Let two consenting adults have a civil union if they want all the legal protections currently afforded those who are married. Anybody who wants to say they're married under a civil union can say it. It just won't be a legal term, and it won't prevent people from having church ceremonies if they want them.
Every person who hears of this issue should ask themselves how it is that a county government was able to come in and override legal documents, abduct and falsely imprison a healthy man in a managed care facility, illegally seize his property and sell it at auction, and deny him the ability to be with a loved one on his death bed. Ask if it can happen to these two men, what is to prevent it from happening to you? Ask how it is that a court gave them even limited right to seize any of the injured man's assets to pay for care he neither wanted nor requested. Ask how anyone can logically argue that such injustice should even be able to occur in a country that calls itself modern and free based solely on someone's sexual orientation, how gay marriage is in any way, shape, or form a threat to straight marriage, and how long we're going to sit by and let these things happen to our neighbors and friends. Silence is complicity.
While I dearly hope that Clay is vindicated in court, no amount of money will return to him what he has lost or erase this terrible injustice that he has suffered. Like so many who have come before him in the past, women, minorities, and others who are gay, Clay has been thrust upon a path not of his own choosing but that will hopefully in time lead to justice, protection, and rights for those who come after him. Given the rampant prejudices and sexism still alive and well in this country, sadly, it seems that legal protections are only the beginning of true justice, but it would be a start.
