And there's something to be said for simplicity of quick explanations. "Brother-in-law" is easy to shout in a gay bar in the Castro on Halloween. "The boyfriend, partner, registered domestic partner, and fiancé of the little brother I adopted off the internet" is significantly less so.
During the Prop 8 trial, one of the testimonies was from a married couple, about their experiences with extended family before and after the wedding. Their own relationship was improved, but the difference in the extended family relationships was dramatic. The family's paradigm did not know how to treat "partner", which seemed impersonal and impermanent to them. "My granddaughter's wife" had a place in the family.
I think I'm of the group and generation that cheerfully embraces "partner" as a gender-neutral term that covers the whole-life interdependence of a long-term committed couple, rather like a modern equivalent to "helpmeet", without touching on legal status. Marriage in the eyes of the law is very important, or something legally equivalent in every respect to it. I don't want to jump through different hoops just based on who I wind up marrying. It's also important for people like my brother's parents to know that, when my brother gets married, that his marriage is equal to theirs in the eyes of the law, if not in the eyes of his parents' fuckwitted church.
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Date: 2011-06-18 09:19 pm (UTC)During the Prop 8 trial, one of the testimonies was from a married couple, about their experiences with extended family before and after the wedding. Their own relationship was improved, but the difference in the extended family relationships was dramatic. The family's paradigm did not know how to treat "partner", which seemed impersonal and impermanent to them. "My granddaughter's wife" had a place in the family.
I think I'm of the group and generation that cheerfully embraces "partner" as a gender-neutral term that covers the whole-life interdependence of a long-term committed couple, rather like a modern equivalent to "helpmeet", without touching on legal status. Marriage in the eyes of the law is very important, or something legally equivalent in every respect to it. I don't want to jump through different hoops just based on who I wind up marrying. It's also important for people like my brother's parents to know that, when my brother gets married, that his marriage is equal to theirs in the eyes of the law, if not in the eyes of his parents' fuckwitted church.