Yes, Virginia, you are backwards

The Virginia General Assembly passed House Bill 751. At the center of the legislation is the following language:

>A civil union, partnership contract or other arrangement between persons of the same sex purporting to bestow the privileges or obligations of marriage is prohibited. Any such civil union, partnership contract or other arrangement entered into by persons of the same sex in another state or jurisdiction shall be void in all respects in Virginia and any contractual rights created thereby shall be void and unenforceable.

I’m no lawyer; I’m no judge either, so I’m just making some assumptions about the way courts interpret laws. And it looks like this statute can easily be interpreted in a way that would make contracts like powers of attorney, wills, etc. invalid because they are often entered into specifically to impart marriage-like privileges for gay men and women; specifically, the right to visit your loved one in the hospital, to make medical decisions for your partner, and to control mutual property. How are those bad things?

This isn’t even about the ‘marriage’ debate, it is about keeping two people who love each other for doing anything to secure their rights with regards to one another. Two mutually consenting adults are to be denied the right to act on the other’s behalf, not because that would require the legalization of equal marriage rights, but because what they want to do merely resembles a marriage.

This is a childish law designed to advance a certain view of marriage held by a group of social conservatives. These are not the kinds of laws that we need in this country; they do not help people. What they do is hinder the freedom of a minority group because a “majority” does not approve of its private life.