A Hostess Unity: Love at first bite

Howdy Folks!

Okay so in case anyone was wondering here are the current laws/ rules/ benefits what have you, in place as far as a same sex couples are entitled.

A step forward?

·Adoption: 19 states allow gay and lesbian couples to adopt children in a complex and expensive two-step process, in which one parent first adopts and then the second can petition for joint rights.

·  Ceremonial Marriages: Same Sex Marriages may be officiated by church officials, or anyone else, but ceremonial marriages in and of themselves involve no civil laws and carry no legal benefits or responsibilities.

·  Domestic Partnership Registration: is a means by which some cities allow opposite- and same-sex couples to go on public record as a non-married couple. The major benefit is used to establish legal responsibility for debts after a relationship ends.

·  Domestic Partnership Affidavit: Many private employers and municipalities offer domestic partner benefits to their workers, based on signing a legal affidavit that defines an economic relationship.

Seems to be pretty reasonable at first glance wouldn’t you think? Okay so let’s take a second look and maybe point out a few holes and trends shall we?

Adoption: So how many states are there in the “United” States of American 50? Right, thought so, we have 50 states with split rulings on adoption and thus far only 19 allow adoption from same sex couples after a rigorous process. Our Union has its priorities a little skewed I must say. We have thousands and thousands of orphaned children yearning for a warm loving home to call their own, but we’d rather deny caregivers based on their sexual orientation than see that they have the comfort and guidance to grow up and be productive members of society. Yeah, I’d have to agree with the other 31 states and let those kids grow up on the streets or bounce from foster home to foster home because it would be erroneous to have two parents care for them.

Ceremonial Marriages: As far as these ceremonial marriages go, I think I had more rights in the backyard wedding I had as a kid to the neighbor boy, when we exchanged hostess snacks for each other’s hand in marriage. It was pretty romantic. Just as it was special to Spencer and I these ceremonial marriages are special to the couples, and no one else. Thanks to Prop 8 they aren’t recognized by anyone but those involved, they carry no legal benefits or civil responsibilities. But the idea is nice.

Domestic Partnership Registration: The keyword in this one that seems to carry a bit of weight is SOME. SOME cities allow… well gays guess you are going to have to up-root and seek out SOME cities to register… good luck!

Domestic Partnership Affidavit: Here we have one of those fun words at work again MANY employers offer… Well hope SOME of those cities have one of those MANY employers offering work.

It’s not enough

Federal rights NOT Covered by Civil Unions

·  Immigration Rights: Cannot have a non-U.S. spouse become a full citizen.

·  Social Security: Cannot collect benefits upon death of a spouse.

·  Federal Taxes: Cannot file jointly as a married couple

This is where the issues are sticky, because this is what Prop 8 truly discriminates against, and what so many pro-8’s don’t even consider. Sure people will have a stance one way or another on the marriage aspect of same sex couples according to what their moral or religious beliefs dictate. But do they truly understand what they are trying to withhold? These are basic entitlements in a marriage that gay couples are not privileged to.

Freedom to Marry

Prop 8

In November of 2008, the state of California passed the Prop 8 proposed ballot. California now only recognizes marriages that are between a man and a woman. Our group, Homo Sapiens, chose to investigate this topic further because it is an important issue regarding equality among people. I would like to focus on another specific group called, Freedom to Marry. This gay rights group has created a daily blog in which they post events, articles, and also links to other gay rights groups. I want to look at how they frame their arguments against Prop 8 and show how they want their audiences to connect with their message. As we analyze Freedom to Marry, we can look at their overall persona. One will be able to see this through the group’s credibility, their values they want their audience to adopt and also how they refer to oppositional groups to make their point.

Because Freedom to Marry is an already established group they have made great efforts to connect and work with other organizations to end the ruling of Prop 8. Freedom to Marry not only wants to accomplish this goal in the state of California but also nationwide. This group establishes its ethos by referring to their four main principles that they uphold,“We are, Catalyst driving the national debate on the freedom to marry; Grassroots network of activists building support for marriage online and on the ground; Strategy and messaging center providing support to local, state, and national allies; and Funding engine helping to fuel the marriage movement nationwide.” Also when looking at this group’s blog one can tell that they are trying to reach out all over the country. Evidence shows this even within their last ten posts when they post not just about California but also Washington DC, Maryland, and Iowa. One can also see that this is credible group because when looking through other gay rights groups main websites they are referenced as a driving supporter of the movement.

One of the most important parts of this group is how they frame their arguments to the audience. When reading the first page of the blog within almost every post is the word equality, which is stressed time and time again. For example, the value is shown in one post that is a link to an article about Meghan McCain, who is a daughter of presidential republican candidate John McCain. Meghan spoke out as a voice for Freedom to Marry at George Washington University. The article written by Madeleine Morgenstern starts out by saying “Meghan McCain voiced her support for marriage equality in a speech at the Jack Morton Auditorium Thursday night, calling it “this generation’s civil rights movement” and urging like-minded “progressive Republicans” to start speaking out.” By posting this link, Freedom to Marry is showing its readers that this is a humanity issue and no matter what political view one takes he or she can still speak out about it. Meghan McCain is only one of the well-known individuals that have been referenced in their posts.

The last part of the persona that Freedom to Marry acknowledges is not involved with the group themselves or the audiences, but instead the third persona. The third persona is the other individuals or groups that Freedom to Marry posts about that for Prop 8 and who want to exclude same-sex marriages. Most of the third personas Freedom to Marry refer to are either religious leaders or lawmakers. For example there is a post about an article in the Washington Post that talks about Utah senator Bob Bennett and his attempt to block D.C. same-sex marriages. There are more examples if you look on their site, but this evidence shows that Freedom to Marry has a strong stance against the politicians and the churches that have chosen to reject a whole category of people.

Persona is certainly an important theory to understand the mindset of support groups like Freedom to Marry. These groups want to involve their readers and make an impact on them in hopes of encouraging people to reach out on issues such as the Marriage Equality movement. This is important to our group, Homo Sapiens because we want our readers to identify with our groups or blogs with a similar mindset as us.

FREEDOM TO MARRY

http://www.freedomtomarry.org/blog/