Liberty and Justice...for ALL?

Picture it, Georgia 1983, A man in his early 30's comes out to his parents as having HIV. Horrified they disown him and never PHYSICALLY speak to him again. Now imagine it's 23 years later and he is in the hospital dying of AIDS related complications, unconscience, beside him is his loving "partner" of 25 years. He is there holding his hand, perhaps talking to him, hoping he can hear him tell stories of the time they met, or that wonderful vacation that they took together. All of a sudden out of nowhere a hospital security guard comes in with a group of people that the partner has never seen before DEMANDING that he is not welcome in the room anymore and that he must leave the property. They are the dying mans family and want to be alone with him. You are escorted out of the room and will never see him alive again. One day you are informed that you lover has passed away while you sat at home...helpless. You try to contact the family to find out about funeral arrangements only to be told that they have possession of his body and you are ABSOLUTELY not welcome to the funeral.

Does that sound like a nightmare to you? That is a true story that happened to my friend in 2006. I joke a lot about wanting the tax benefits of marriage. Honestly though, it's all about legal protection. I do not see for one minute where a family that completely turned their back on a loved one has the right to come back in the last days to exercise rights that they threw away. This my friends is not an uncommon occurrence. When Chad and I flew to California and got married we were assuring ourselves that in at least a handful of states we were protected. We paid $90.00 for our licence and was afforded all the rights of our heterosexual counterparts. Compare that to the THOUSANDS of dollars that people in same sex relationships have to pay (attorney's fee, court fees, etc.) to get a FRACTION of the rights.

I feel that opponents of same sex marriage really do not think about what their lives would be like it their relationships had to be structured like ours. What would it feel like to think that you have you entire life in order and God forbid anything happens to you and you loved one and all of a sudden the rug is snatched out from underneath you. It would be like constantly walking on eggshells to prepare for the worst.

The ultimate goal for MOST people in life is to meet someone and settle down and build a life together. When we do so we expect that the person we chose will know and love us well enough to do what is best for us in the event we can no longer make those choices for ourselves. We shouldn't need a state or federal legislature nor a local or federal supreme court to give us the same rights that heterosexuals get by simply signing a piece of paper and saying "I do."