Gay Marriage Rescues Heterosexual Divorce

First, let me get the full disclosure out of the way; I believe marriage should be defined as the union between heterosexual partners – that is, one man and one woman; I’m against gay marriage; I think gay marriage is an overt attack on the sanctity of the family. Since the family unit is the bedrock and smallest cohesive unit of society, I view gay marriage as an attack on the American way of life. Now, I don’t care if a gay couple wants to cohabitate and do whatever it is gay couples do; what happens in the privacy of a home should remain private. That privacy does not extend to birthing (in the case of lesbians) or adopting (either gender) children; children are the fruits of a heterosexual union and should remain that way; so you could say I’m against gay couples having children, too.

Basically, I’ve always felt that each should be true to him or herself; I’ve only asked for that same courtesy in return. But we’ve gone beyond that now. Gays not only want me to tolerate them in their aberrance, but they are demanding I approve of their lifestyle and choices. This I will never do.

So we have another gross miscarriage of justice in California this week. Voters in California decided that gay marriage was not for them; in 2000 61% of them voted to ban the practice. This week, the California Supreme Court decided to ignore the will of the voters. Instead of sending the law back to the Legislature to be rewritten, four of the seven justices took it upon themselves to not only overturn the ban, but to legalize gay marriage.

Guess those judges were asleep during the civics classes describing the separation of powers. But I stray.

In thinking about this news and discussing it with my girl, it occurred to me that gay marriage, as ugly and disgusting as it is, will actually be a boon to heterosexual divorce. Follow along with me, reader, and you’ll see where I’m headed in a moment.

Traditionally, when heterosexual couples marry and divorce, the wife is given preferential treatment. The treatment is so preferential that some fathers never get to see their children again. But, in the less extreme, courts have forced fathers to give up the majority of their pay to support the children and ex-wife, subjected the father to supervised visitation if the ex-wife even hints there’s something improper about his relationship with his children, and the list goes on. I challenge you to do a little research into it and read with the dismay of millions of fathers who are being treated like criminals – because they are male.

But now, gay marriage will save all that; it will right the justice system in a way that the men’s movement never could; it will end the prejudice against men and fathers and force a judge to award custody and support based on merit instead of gender roles.

How is gay marriage going to do all this? Easy – gay divorce.

It is a sad fact of our society that over half of all marriages end in divorce. I don’t think gay divorce statistics will be much different (not the honest ones, anyway). So when a gay couple stands before a judge to divvy up the estate, custody, who pays how much in child support, he or she will be forced to view the partners based on merit. Merit here means the ability to contribute to the support of the children and the other partner. In a male gay couple divorce, there is no woman to automatically prefer with ridiculous child support requirements and draconian visitation rules imposed upon the father. The judge will have to drop this blatant sexism in favor of something more fair; from each according to his ability.

Similarly, in female gay divorces, a judge can’t automatically favor one female over the other – he or she will again be forced to view the case based on the merit of each partner.

We have in our judicial system a preference for previous decisions. The term used is stare decisis, in effect, ‘let the decision stand’. For example, if it was decided in 1967 that ‘separate but equal’ was not Constitutional, any other case that was similar would consider the judge’s decision and usually rule in a comparable manner.

This is where I bring the tractor-trailer all the way around. Given that merit will be the requirement in gay divorce, it will only be fair and just for heterosexual divorce. No longer will men be treated as a criminal, as nothing more than the gene donor and pocketbook, as nothing more than a dalliance from which the ex-wife can be supported for the rest of her life. True justice will finally – finally – be granted to fathers and ex-husbands, justice that has previously been withheld for a myriad of reasons ranging from prejudice to outright disdain for the male gender.

I don’t think gay marriage is right for our country or its future and I oppose it in any form it takes. If we are to have this travesty in our society perhaps there’ll be something good borne out of this evil; fathers will once again be respected, sought for more than his paycheck, and put on equal ground as mothers.

It’s about time.