This
moving story, via the Hartford Courant, is about New York
police detective Frank Coppola, who is testifying in support of
proposals to broaden the state's definition of marriage. His
partner, Eddy, a New York firefighter, perished on September 11,
and the two last saw each other in the lobby of the stricken World
Trade Center. As the article tells it:
During the six years they were together, Eddy had not engaged in public displays of affection or acknowledgements of their life together. When Coppola left after visiting Eddy at his firehouse, Eddy would lower his hand along his side and say "I love you" in sign language.
As Eddy headed for the [Trade Center] stairs to begin his climb up the tower, he shouted to Coppola, "I love you." Coppola, startled, gave him the familiar sign. "Chicken," called Eddy, their final exchange as he ascended into the maelstrom.
At Eddy's memorial service, Coppola was asked to stay in the
back of the church and not speak to family or friends. Moreover,
"He was mistakenly told that Eddy's remains had been recovered in
October 2001. He called Eddy's mother, who refused to explain."
Coppola says he knows nine gay firefighters who were killed, and
that six of them were couples. He's also known surviving partners
of gay and lesbian victims who have committed suicide. We're
told:
He wrestled often with those dark thoughts himself. "I am lost a lot." He insists he must have been spared for a purpose. Randomness of life is no explanation.
The legislature's judiciary committee is considering three bills: a change in the statutes that would broaden the definition of marriage; a measure that would establish civil unions between same-sex couples; and an anti-gay proposal to ban same-sex marriage outright.
Meanwhile, across the nation in Washington state, another civil
unions bill is being debated. According to the
Seattle Times/AP story:
The bill says community property, separation and dissolution, child custody and support, property division and other rights and responsibilities apply just as in a heterosexual union.
The Christian Coalition and other religious conservatives will resist both bills, said the coalition's state director, Rick Forcier. The civil-union bill is "dead on arrival," but foes will make their opposition clear, he said.
"For us, it's out of concern for issues of public health," he said. "It seems to us to be a work against nature, a very quick trip to 40 or more kinds of sexually transmitted disease. It is an unhealthy thing."
Here we have two stories about two same-sex partnership/marriage struggles in two states. Which side do you think the average American will see as occupying the moral high ground?
Reconfiguration Before Rights?
Meanwhile,
in Florida:
A man who was born a woman won custody of two children on Friday, with the judge ruling he is legally a male and his marriage to their mother did not violate Florida's ban on same-sex unions.
So Florida joins the ranks of those states holding that a person who undergoes enough surgical redesigning of the genital area can marry someone who shares the same sex both had at birth (and, usually, throughout most of their lives) -- or, put another way, who share the same gender chromosomes. Yet before being surgically altered, this person could not marry someone of the same sex.
But wait a minute, isn't he/she the same person she/he was, or
does the court think a soul transplant also occurred? And if it's
the same person, why do surgical cosmetics make it legal to wed a
loved one who, absent surgery, you'd be forbidden to marry. Does
any of this make sense to anyone?
--Stephen H. Miller
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