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November 11, 2003
Eating Cake?
I want to have my cake and eat it too! Well not literally. At least, not in this case. The story to hand is from Jiva and it is about the question of whether a gay extra-marital affair counts as adultery. The court (in the story) says "Yes" but the corespondent wants to appeal.
The immediate reaction is to think of all these "equal rights" claims for the recognition of gay marriage. If gay couples can married then the question of an adult affair being adultery is obvious - yes. You can't argue for the marriage and against the adultery...
You could, I guess make a case against marriage and against the adultery decision (be assuming that extra-marital same sex affairs are not really "sex" - also known as the Clinton defence).
With a bit more thought I figure on the other alternative - no to the marriage and yes to the adultery. How do I achieve that? Well, my (possibly limited) understanding or marriage is that it is between a man and a woman (ignoring polygamy for the moment) and changing basic definition would mean making it something other than marriage (note this is not a discussion about equal rights for same-sex couples; it is about the definition of a term). At the same time, an extra-marital affair with someone else is a breach of that marriage. Technically it is a violation of a social contract between spouses. That means I think the court got it right.
What is the real question? Why is this even going to court? I thought the 'no blame' divorce system was pretty much available everywhere in the US (and Australia) in which case the question of adultery is between the husband and wife - why involve the lawyers?
Posted by Ozguru at November 11, 2003 05:11 PM
