Posted on 12/18/2005 5:42:02 PM PST by tsipple
Barbara Kenny's eyes narrow as she cranks the faucet in a freshly painted bathroom of what will soon be her new home in Frederick. [....]
"This just makes me madder and madder," Barbara says, staring out the window at the bare February landscape. "I mean, this is a perfectly fine house, it's just not where we want to be."
Where they want to be is Virginia, in the little townhouse in downtown Fredericksburg they've owned for 17 years, in the community they've come to treasure. It took them three decades of isolation and living in the closet to find Fredericksburg, and come out as lesbians. [....]
[They] were watching television in their living room rocking chairs in the summer of 2004 when they heard the news they'd been dreading for months. A new law in Virginia had taken effect, called the Affirmation of Marriage Act. It declared that couples like them were not entitled to any of the benefits or protections that straight, married couples got. [....]
For Barbara and Tibby, the legal language it used was scary: A civil union, partnership contract or other arrangement between persons of the same sex purporting to bestow the privileges or obligations of marriage is prohibited and such an arrangement entered into in another state or jurisdiction is void in Virginia and any contractual rights created thereby are void and unenforceable.
Tibby initially refused to believe that the legislation was aimed at Barbara and her. They were law-abiding, low-key Virginians, people who ran their neighborhood homeowners association, called bingo nights at the firehouse and served on their church's board of trustees. "That's not meant to include us. It means people who come from other states," Tibby said with her typically earnest tone to Barbara, who responded with a typically skeptical look.
[Continues....]
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
"My first thought after reading the initial few words was that she had a bad case of penis envy."
...
No, author annie proulx has that envy.. err I mean her alter ego Jack(ed) Twisted and his(her) 'ennis.
Well, if they are sooooo scared, they can always go hide in the closet...
Conditional medical power of attorney should do the trick in the instance you cited and can be assigned to anyone.
It seems like Barbara and Tibby had an emotional over-reaction to the new law in Virginia that far outweighs any possible effect it might have on them. Because of that over-reaction, they have walked away from what appeared to be a fairly happy and well adjusted life, which is a shame.
Given the description of their lifestyle, I don't think they are going to be happy in the cookie-cutter conformity of exurban Frederick, Maryland. They should have looked at Ellicott City for something similar to what they had known.
Sure, you can legally designate such authority - the problem is getting such designations honored, especially in situations where there is substantial disagreement between "family members" and "designated decision makers".
In such situations it’s not as though you can just walk into the hospital, waive a signed power of attorney for health care around, and take charge; in such cases – especially if your “decision” is at odds with the judgment of medical professionals or immediate family members - you can find yourself in court attempting to excerpt control you expected would be automatic.
And that’s where this law, as written, starts to muddy the waters.
This is not exclusive to homosexuals. If your conflicts with your immediate family are so severe as to warrant you going to court, your already f**d, as I observe from my friend's messy divorce and glean from your own comment about prior experiences. Another example, the schiavo case was elevated by the conflict of immediate family vs. a spouse.
BTW, you must have meant honor, not hone.
So basically, these two aren't Jane and Jean Doe as Mizz Boorstein tries to make them out to be. They're homosexual activists, who have cried "persecution" and let the entire world know how eeeeeeeeevil Virginia is.
Nice catch, kcvl.
}:-)4
This is hardly a new practice -- and properly so, in cases of genuine parental abuse and neglect.
I'm sure that there are plenty of legal sharks out there figuring out how to use the new law to steal.
Thanks. These days you can't tell without a scorecard. They could have easily been PCUSA, Episcopal, or Methodist.
Ultimately, the only solution is to separate marriage and state.
Post of the day!
More baloney from the comPost. Companies still have partner benefits.
And if your personal experience, conscience, and reason should lead you to accept the divinity of Christ, pray the rosary, participate in pro-life protests outside abortion mills, reject homosexuality and preach sexual abstinence outside marriage ... you'll discover that the UUs don't agree that your "final authority in religion" belongs anywhere near their place, and they'll tell you to get the h*ll out of their church ... all in a very tolerant, non-authoritative manner, of course.
They're just as "creedal" as anyone else. Their creed is hedonism, liberalism, and rejection of Christianity.
Thats the truth. I saw a funny joke "Whats the difference between a Jewish friend and Unitarian friend? You Jewish friend will at least send you a Christmas card".
Your loss is our gain.
Homosexuals can't be natural parents. We've now established the precedent of the government assigning children to parents arbitrarily, that is, outside of the natural order. There is now no logical limit as to who, or what, will be allowed to raise children.
They KNOW the readers are stupid. Who else would subscribe to the leader of the Treason Media?
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