An Excellent Essay on Marriage Equality

By On August 15, 2012 · 4 Comments · In Current Events, Rights Theory

My Facebook friend Helen Dale, a lawyer in Scotland, has written a very nice legal defense of marriage equality titled “A Plea in Law for Equal Marriage” that won first prize in an essay contest.  The context is Scottish law, but BHL readers might find it of interest.  Helen also blogs here and is a BHL reader too!Preview

 
  • B Daddy

    I don’t understand why marriage must be an affair defined by legislation.

    • good_in_theory

      Try thinking harder.

    • TracyW

      It doesn’t *have* to be involved. But legislature definitions of marriage, or civil partnership, do seem to fit in with many people’s policy views (eg, many people support immigration restrictions but also don’t want to see people who happened to fall in love with a foreign national forced to separate.)
      And there’s no reason that we have to limit our lives to only doing those things that we have to do.

  • TracyW

    I’m in favour of same-sex marriage, but in the context of civil partnerships I don’t really get the cruelty and absurdity placed on A and his/her partner in this case (I assume that the legal costs of divorce and marriage/civil unit in Scotland are pretty minimal). After all, presumably it is a pure administrative measure, they file some forms to change your marriage to a domestic partnership. They’re presumably still free to celebrate whatever anniversary they like, I don’t think an anniversary is a legal ceremony.
    She also doesn’t make a case why tolerance cuts in favour of recognising same-sex marriage, rather than in favour of recognising many people’s discomfort with same-sex marriage (as opposed to civil partnerships). A call for tolerance is much stronger from someone advocating tolerance of something they personally disagree with than from someone advocating other people tolerate them.