An UnFair Wisconsin
So yesterday, the gay marriage ban in Wisconsin passed. Except that it’s not just a gay marriage ban. It also bans civil unions or extending any benefit that flows from marriage to an unmarried couple. Gay or straight.
This is a problem for me, because I had decided that I wasn’t going to get married. Under Wisconsin’s marital property law, any debts that you or your spouse had prior to the marriage (or any assets) become community property that is divisible 50/50 at divorce. I don’t think I should have to be responsible for choices that someone made prior to me even meeting them, and I don’t think they should have to be responsible for my choices. Nor should I benefit off of choices that I wasn’t involved in, and I don’t think the other person should necessarily benefit off my choices. So, I decided that cohabitating was for me, because many of the protections of marriage are, oops, WERE available anyway.
Meanwhile, the same people that voted for what I like to call the Discrimination Amendment voted for reinstating the death penalty in Wisconsin. So what should Wisconsin’s youth learn from this? Apparently, it’s okay to take another human life if you think they are a bad human being, but it’s not okay to tolerate people who have a different view of marriage than you do. Nice lesson, folks.
posted by Jenni @ 11:24 AM
6 comments:
Jeez! Not even Georgia (when I lived there) does that! When my ex and I separated and then divorced, anything that was mine prior to the marriage remained mine, and, obviously, the same was true for her, too. The only property that had to be divided equitably was the property that had accumulated during the marriage. As for the debts, I'm glad I insisted on one thing after she and I got married: that we have separate credit cards, that none of them should be held jointly. Although, according to Georgia law, I could still have been held responsible for her debt, and she for mine, because the cards were separate, it wasn't done that way. They were kept separate.
I'm not sure, however, how Georgia law works when it comes to cohabitation. I do know this, though, based on a conversation I had at work today: in Virginia, apparently, you are considered to be in a common-law marriage if you have lived together for 6-months to one-year, so that after that time-frame their marriage laws could be made to apply if you and your significant other separated and, assuming (of course), your significant other wanted to be such an ass to have that law applied to your relationship.
This subject came up when someone called my girlfriend my wife and I admonished them, saying that she wasn't my wife. I also hastily pointed out that she and I don't live together. That's rather hard to do when you've an ocean between you, obviously. I'm not sure how laws work in Maryland regarding cohabitation, or even in Portugal, for that matter. It's something I should probably investigate.
I agree with you, though. Neither party should benefit/suffer from the choices made by the other.
I am curious, though, at what point does Wisconsin consider a cohabited couple to be in a common-law marriage? Or was that the point of the law? To ban that, as well?
Thanks for the thoughtful response, gdt. To answer your question, Wisconsin doesn't recognize common law marriage at all. So cohabitation is always just cohabitation...
One thing that I always try to remember about the USA is that they only recently (in 1964 - that is only 42 years ago, less than the age of my cousins) allowed EQUAL rights to africans americans.
Only in 1955 did Rosa Parks refuse giving up her seat. The rights act in 1964 is not that long ago, is it?
So the fact that even today, silly inequalities exist there, is nothing to be surprised at. Its going to take a long time - but remember, MLKing, and Rosa Parks took a stand. From that stand, sense emerges...
I hope the two of you have a happy and wonderful New Year, Jenni and Leah!
Have the goddesses died? O.O
I love the blog that you have. I was wondering if you would link my blog to yours and in return I would do the same for your blog. If you want to, my site name is American Legends and the URL is:
www.americanlegends.blogspot.com
If you want to do this just go to my blog and in one of the comments just write your blog name and the URL and I will add it to my site.
Thanks,
David
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