Last Thursday the state Assembly Judiciary Committee voted 6-0 to approve Assembly Bill 475 without discussion, thereby reinforcing a standard of prejudice and inequality in the state of Wisconsin.
The state Assembly and state Senate Judiciary Committees unanimously passed the bill, which redefined Wisconsin's marriage law as between \one man and one woman."" The question of gay marriages was pushed to center stage in June after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws banning sodomy.
By July, President Bush had stated his opposition to any proposals that would make marriage between gay couples legal. Ever since Bush voiced his opposition, conservative state legislators have jumped on the bandwagon of denying same-sex couples their rights.
Although Canadian courts recently recognized marriage as a right for all citizens regardless of their sexual orientation, the United States continues a hypocritical tradition that smothers constitutional rights with religious dogma.
Many conservatives in the country see marriage as a religious sacrament, which is the basis for arguments against legal wedlock between same-sex couples. What they fail to see, however, is the practical benefits of marriage for committed partners, ignoring the rights and privileges that are being denied to gay couples and their children.
Marriage is a social and religious institution for many, but for everyone there are legal rights and benefits that go along with the union. Financial benefits include the right to file joint income tax returns and the division of business incomes among family members. There are estate-planning benefits, including the right to inherit from one's spouse in case of death, and married couples also receive Medicare, social security and disability benefits for their spouses.
The list of medical benefits, death benefits, family benefits, housing benefits, consumer benefits and many other legal benefits also includes the right to receive domestic violence restraining orders, child custody rights and immigration and residency benefits for a non-citizen spouse.
The list goes on and on, and the point is that our constitution promises the protection of every citizen through the separation of church and state and the guarantee that all citizens are created equal under the law. If a church is unwilling to marry gay couples, it is their right as a private institution. However, it is a grave injustice that President Bush endorses prejudicial laws along with the reinforcement and redefinition of marriage to exclude many Americans from their due rights.
On July 30 President Bush addressed the issue of gay marriages in a press conference. ""I think it is very important for our society to respect each individual, to welcome those with good hearts, to be a welcoming country,"" he said. ""On the other hand, that does not mean that somebody like me needs to compromise on an issue such as marriage.""
As a born-again Christian, President Bush has once again ignored the importance of the separation of church and state and has ignored the legal importance of marriage to protect the rights of gay couples and their children. How President Bush imagines that gay marriages will affect his own family is beyond reason, but once again he has failed in his duties as president to separate his own prejudices from his duties as the leader of a free nation.
The bill still has to come before the full House for a vote. If the Assembly passes the bill, it still has to pass the Senate, and then Gov. Jim Doyle would have to sign it for it to become law.
Students and community members that are opposed to this bill need to lobby their representatives, as well as Gov. Doyle. Pressure them to vote against the bill's installation as state law. As is stands now, the law defines marriage as being between ""a husband and a wife."" This definition clearly applies only to heterosexual couples.
This bill is meant only to emphasize prejudice and does nothing more than pour salt in the wounds of gay couples struggling for the proper rights to protect themselves and their families.
