The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY
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the DIVERSITY SCENE Focus on what is important in the push for same-sex marriage rights Happy November! Because my article last month focused on the tragic death of yet another LGBT teen, I did not even mention that October was National LGBT History Month. To honor LGBT His- tory Month and National Coming Out Day, which was Oct. 11, SUNY Oneonta hosted a series of events including one panel on the impact of the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" military policy and another panel on the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York state. With a nod toward history, I want to focus this article on same-sex marriage. In recent years, November has been a big month for same-sex marriage events: On Nov. 18, 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court found in the case of Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that the state may not "deny the protections, benefits and obliga- tions conferred by civil marriage to two individuals of the same sex who wish to marry." On Nov. 2, 2004, Oregon passed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. And on Nov. 12, 2008, Connecticut began issuing marriage licenses for same-sex marriage. During the college's same-sex marriage panel, one couple expressed jubilation that their relationship would finally be fully recognized by the state and that certain legal protections would now be afforded to them. They have their date set and Our contributors talk about different aspects of diversity, from LGBTQ issues to questions of ethnicity and more. To submit a column or event, email editor@otownscene.com. Doc Rob Wrangles (with the issues) |by Robin Nussbaum their lack of interest in being "normal" and "just like heterosexuals." One of the partners actually commented that he reveled in being a little different, a little outside the norms.) If we aren't careful, the push for same-sex marriage rights, that is the right to choose to marry your same- sex partner, will become the push for same-sex marriage, that is, the necessity for couples to marry in order to access benefits. Benefits that perhaps the state should separate from marriage, because as I asked before: for what reason has the state privi- leged marriage over all other relationships? I hope you don't feel shocked that I would suggest that mar- Associated Press are having their wedding within the next few months. A second couple talked about the difficulty in deciding whether or not to join the institution of marriage — one that they feel is racked with issues. Don't forget that marriage is essentially a patriar- chal institution that originally marked women as property and was used for the purpose of handing down wealth to the males of a family. Marriage, at least in Western culture, also represents a place where church and state suddenly become not so separate. Why is it that the state and federal governments privilege married couples over any other type of relationship? And married or not, all of us should have a mechanism for easily indicating who has the authority to make decisions on our behalf should we become incapacitated, and to whom our possessions should go to should we pass on. (The second couple also discussed riage rights might become pressure to marry. Coercive efforts to push marriage on poor single mothers have cropped up in wel- fare reform efforts and elsewhere for years. Also, mainstream LGBT people, wanting to prove that LGBT people are "just like heterosexuals," have often pressured other community members to be more "normal" and to take advantage of same-sex mar- riage where it is legal. And, as I have written before, the LGBT community and its supporters have spent millions of dollars in trying to pass and protect same-sex marriage rights. All for an issue that conser- vatives and the religious right have used as a wedge issue to divide (and in some cases conquer) more liberal/progressive communities and pit marginalized communities, like people of color and LGBT people, against each other. Can you imagine if we instead poured millions of dollars into preventing suicide or bullying? How much misery could have been prevented? How many lives could we have saved? Robin Nussbaum is the coordinator of the Gender and Sexu- ality Resource Center at SUNY Oneonta. She can be reached at nussbar@oneonta.edu. 20 O-Town Scene Nov. 3, 2011