What would you do if you woke up and found yourself suddenly married? That's a reality thousands of gay couples in Washington State will be facing when a government decision will convert domestic partnerships to marriages. Not everyone is happy about it, including several prominent commentators in the LGBT community. TheBlaze's Faith Editor Billy Hallowell and writer Brandon Ambrosino, who has covered topics including gay marriage and sexuality for The Atlantic and The Huffington Post, joined Glenn to disucss the story this topic.
Billy Hallowell reported for TheBlaze Wednesday morning:
Starting June 30, all domestic partners who are not currently in the process of annulling of dissolving their unions will find themselves legally married.While many happy couples are sure to welcome the change, it’s likely to create conundrums for couples not in the same circumstances they were when they registered their partnerships.
Couples that have unofficially separated will end up being recognized as married if they don’t take action before the June 30 deadline. Some couples who registered as domestic partners in Washington, but then moved to a state where gay unions are not recognized, have had to move back to Washington to dissolve their partnerships — and will likely need to do the same if they wish to block their impending marriages, the Times reported.
Hallowell said, "The state’s essentially saying you have a domestic partnership so you must want a marriage. So yeah, let’s say you want to plan your marriage out. You want to have a ceremony. You want to pick the day. Well, June 20, you are all being married on that day."
"Marriage means a lot to the two people who enter into it, so you pick your day. You have that wedding day. It’s very special to you. You’re sort of taking that away from people, and you’re telling them we’re going to make the decision for you," Hallowell added.
Ambrosino, who is gay and identifies as conservative "on some issues", agreed. "I think that’s exactly right. I mean, on the one hand, it is a signal of progress, and so I am sort of excited, but I also have hesitation. I think marriage should be about intentionality."
"I want to pick the date. I want to have my family here. I want this to be a ceremony between me and my partner and in front of my friends and family and before God. And so I think it totally just says intention doesn’t matter anymore," he added.
Ambrosino has been attacked by some on the left for his viewpoints, "A lot of the criticism I get from gay activists is that I’m too much of a hetero normative thinker. A lot of queer thinkers reject the institution of marriage, but they still want all the benefits that the institution allows for, so some of them don’t want the word marriage, so they would prefer a domestic partnership, you know? So we have to think about all of these questions."
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