"We're not married. Let's get that right. We have a civil partnership. What is wrong with Proposition 8 is that they went for marriage. Marriage is going to put a lot of people off, the word marriage.
I don't want to be married. I'm very happy with a civil partnership. If gay people want to get married, or get together, they should have a civil partnership. The word 'marriage,' I think, puts a lot of people off.
You get the same equal rights that we do when we have a civil partnership. Heterosexual people get married. We can have civil partnerships."
Full story here. Interestingly enough, I just purchased my first Elton John record (unless you count The Lion King) a couple weeks ago. It was about time.
3 comments:
VERY interesting! And Gladys Knight was there!
Interesting indeed. I agree with him, somewhat. I wish the powers that be would just settle on calling it something other than marriage as I think there would be a lot less heart attacks to go around. Most Christians can only see marriage as a religious institution, and any attempts to explain the differences between civil marriage and religious marriage are futile. Even if one can explain those differences with some degree of success it means nothing to someone who is convinced, in every fiber of their being, that homosexuality is a sin.
That being said, Elton lives in the UK. Here in the US, civil partnerships/civil unions are nothing like marriage. The UK does a fairly decent job at separating the religious institution of marriage from the civil. The US...not so much. There are over 1,000 benefits afforded to legally "married" couples, and while civil unions help a couple obtain some of those benefits, it by no means grants them all, but only a percentage. Of course some of those benefits will never be attainable as long as DOMA exists. Were DOMA to be reversed/axed/canceled/demolished, then perhaps civil unions would have more of a footing (at least in those states that have them).
Perhaps when marriage and civil unions are the same here in the US, Elton's comments will make sense. But as for now, they're fairly ignorant of what civil unions actually constitute here in the US.
- Bryan
Seth,
I agree with Bryan, but facts and figures aside, the issue is about equality... It's not just about equal rights, but equality in the purest sense of the word. Separate but equal (ie: drinking fountains) may indeed have been equal, but what it said to the world was: "You're not accepted"
Frankly, that may be the message most pro prop 8 individuals desired, but it is not one that the people being discriminated against will stand for. This is about more than marriage.
Only the future will see where this leads, but it is far from over.
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