Some Clarification

Friends and family know about my anti-marriage stance, but I see their eyes glaze over when try to explain what I mean, so I'm frequently mocked if I happen to mention marriage in relation to myself. Responding to an article about partners who are not spouses getting screwed on death benefits post-9/11, Shane Landrum writes about some of my real objections to marriage today:

"Hicklin's article points out what committed unmarried couples, same-sex and otherwise, have known for years: that reducing relationships to a piece of paper causes thousands of relationships to not count in the eyes of families and the state. Those who choose not to marry or are not legally allowed to marry get the 'privilege' of being told that our relationships aren't 'real' or significant.

"American law and culture places a huge weight on marriage certificates as the single legal marker of the validity of a relationship. Married people are accorded hundreds of legal and social privileges that unmarried couples don't get, from survivor benefits to avoidance of estate taxes."

The question is, what makes married people more deserving of these types of benefits? Is it a moral question? Is the government telling us that only people who follow religiously imposed rules of morality may reap the gifts of the state? Is a married person better than I am? Bump that, I'd rather take my second-class status and wear it as a crown than join the government's little popularity contest. Nothing changes if we all just go with the flow, you know.