May 16th, 2011
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Author: AFER attorney Ted Olson and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (pictured) have penned a joint opinion piece in the New York Daily News arguing that civil unions are no substitute for marriage equality.
Says the editorial, in part:
"In New York, there are more than 1,300 state rights and responsibilities that come with a marriage license. From spousal inheritance rights to the ability to file joint tax returns to child custody rules to the transferring of workers' compensation benefits, the scope of marriage-related law is expansive. Some are fundamental, others mundane – but all serve to underscore how deeply interwoven New York's marriage laws are and how extraordinarily they reach into the lives of countless people…
…A civil union is not a marriage, nor is it an adequate substitute for one. To suggest otherwise is a cruel fiction. Even if all of the inherent confusion and complexities could be resolved and civil unions could somehow provide couples with the same rights and responsibilities of a true marriage, the separation of the two institutions creates a badge of inferiority that forever stigmatizes the relationships of committed same-sex couples as different, separate, unequal and less worthy."
Read the whole piece here.
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