Besides the obvious, be treated with respect and dignity as a 'couple'.

The only advantages I can think of for a couple to married;

Lower taxes for Married filing jointly.

Being able to leave your estate to your life partner with out the possibility of nasty next of kin who haven't spoken to you in years coming forward, contesting the will, and robbing your partner of everything the two of you have built together over your life times.

Would it be easier to adopt and protect children?

What else?

Being able to make end of life decisions, as next of kin. Being able to hear medical prognosis if your spouse is incapacitated, as next of kin.

Procuring benefits for your spouse, as next of kin.


The list goes on and on, what is the point of this? Another post to say there's no point to gay marriage? If you are so clueless that you can't see with your own eyes the rights denied to gay couples, then you don't deserve for people to list things out for your own, closed-mined, leisure.

I haven't been married for over ten years. I have been head of household for a family of five. How would I know what the advantages of marriage are????
I have long since forgotten them.

Would you have been so rude to my face you gutless wonder?

I have no objection to gays or to them getting married. I would be glad to attend my gay friends marriages.

So where do you get off carrying a chip on your shoulder so sure in your myopic arrogance that everyone is against you???

I find you as vile as a mormon claiming persecution.

But "wittyname" which I like as a moniker by the way, you missed my post a few years back when I realized that being gay was just that. gay. You can't decide to not be heterosexual any more than you can decide to not be gay.

I am livid that the church does the "Evergreen Project" if I had known at the time they started it, in the 70s when I still even believed being gay was wrong, I still would have left the TSCC then because I do not believe in torturing people.!!!!

So watch where you swing your proverbial fist. You might be smacking a friend and not know it!!!

Agreed. No need to jump to conclusions or be inconsiderate.

Living Will and other legal documents?
I'm just playing devil's advocate here.
My view is that there should be no such thing as "Legal Marriage" at all. There is no need for it; we can all just draw up the contracts we need.
If people and their organizations want to call something "marriage" and have a ceremony, they can do so according to their own beliefs and rules.

The exact same benefits of marriage that heterosexual couples wish to enjoy.

+ a billion

Equality!
Not being treated as second class citizens.

Just like summer said, the same 'advantages' hetero couples get. I'm bisexual. If I ever fall in love with a woman, I want to be able to enjoy a marriage with her just as I would with a man.

Yes, what both above said. I don't understand the need to list every reason gay people would want to get married (I've never been married before so I don't even know the specifics beyond what I've guessed as to the benefits that heterosexual couples enjoy.)It's equality, what more reason need there be?

"What else?"

Power of Attorney for medical and financial decisions.

Many horror stories of "couples" together for years then one of them gets sick and/or dies and the Significant Other is left out in the cold by a family that had no contact with their gay family member when he/she was alive.

Gay people have to PAY to get documents written up, PAY to get them notarized, MAKE THE EFFORT to make sure they are on file with the right people...

That's not equality, that's a benefit of being married.

I say we get rid of marriage and make everyone pay. :-P

No need to get mad at me, I always vote in favor of equal rights for everyone. If it's government marriage, they can't discriminate! But it's really funny that the government needs to "license" a personal relationship.

I've read your posts before and I know your position.

sorry, but this is not coming across as observant at all.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2012 11:53AM by MJ.

Why would anyone even question the advantages gay people would get if they are a married couple? As a straight person, did you question what the advantages would be when you married? Most people don't understand that a gay person, with or without a partner, is seen legally as a single person in most of this country.

My oldest daughter is lesbian and we live in a rather conservative (I say crazy) state where her partner would not be allowed to make decisions for her in the case that she cannot do it herself. By default, I am the person who would be called to make those decisions. They have a domestic partnership agreement, but I wonder if that would even be honored in the event of a life threatening emergency. Of course, I would defer to my daughter's wife, out of respect and love for their relationship.

I wish with all my heart she could marry the love of her life and have the same rights and privileges I have and her little sister has.

It is a right that all human beings should have. Gay people should not need to give you or anyone else a litany of reasons.

If you are hetero and married, I bet you did not have to justify your desire to marry to the world, did you?

Our Constitution. Plain and simple. The Constitution guarantees that no group of citizens will be given special rights that other group or other citizens are denied. That fact is embedded into our founding document. There is absolutely no excuse in this country that married citizens should get any special privileges over any other unmarried citizen, without extending those same rights and privileges to all citizens. In the face of the Constitution, there is no reason gay people should be denied the same rights and privileges that any other citizen of this country is able to claim.

So what are the advantages of marriage that mixed race couples want to have?

So what are the advantages of marriage that black couples want to have?

So what are the advantages of marriage that straights want to have?

You can ask the question of any group of people that you want, sadly, it matters most to gay people at the moment, because they are denied what everyone else takes for granted. If you're married, it's sad that you take your marriage for granted to the point that you can't explain why people want to get married. The list of rights granted by a marriage certificate fills a small book, some of the bigger ones have been listed above, but that's just the start.

So, what are the advantages? It shouldn't even be a question.

Best answer yet.

They get mothers in law, same as the rest of us.

Of course you may have a different understanding of the question if you were being told to ride in the back of the bus.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2012 11:52AM by MJ.

So one can get half the other's income and the house after the divorce.

I believe they can already get that through a domestic partnership agreement. Or maybe even without. Palimony does not require marriage. BUT they would need to be married to get social security benefits. That's a big one.

http://www.gao.gov/archive/1997/og97016.pdf

Read all 75 pages. Then you'll know.

I knew there was one listing the very LONG list of rights conveyed by a marriage license but I couldn't remember where to look. :)

When visiting an injured partner, not being excluded because a Mormon family claims the gay partner is nothing.

While you're asking, curious as to why uppity blacks weren't happy at the back of the bus when they still got to their destination?

Back in the nineties when all my friends died, I watched families, some mormon, come in after the death and LEGALLY strip the surviving partner to the bone.

As legal family they had rights to half the assets at least, many times more. A partner of eight or ten years was treated as if he had only been renting a room.

The government basically does to the same if you have acquired any wealth at all.

Marriage as a legal transaction, not a holy one, stops this.

Why can't they just live together and breed kids if they must, without forcing the heterosexual lifestyle on us? Let them have the same rights, I don't care, just don't call it marriage. Let's not re-define marriage. Let's uphold the traditional definition of marriage as a sacred covenant between one man and all the underage girls he can buy from their parents.

Don't forget that international married couples can file for spousal residency visas and eventually gain citizenship.

I appreciate all of you that answered an honest inquiry.

Like I said. I have been the single head of household for over ten years supporting a family of five by myself.

I have been busy scraping a living.

How could I KNOW the advantages of marriage??????

I HAVE NO OBJECTION to gay marriage. I just wanted some ideas of things I'd overlooked or in some cases FORGOTTEN about the "ADVANTAGE" of "MARRIAGE"

In Oregon registered partners are recognized. And they can file married jointly and get the same tax benefits.

I feel anyone you designate, family or not should be able to review or inquire of your medical standing. Some family members are just too crazy and selfish to stand in for you in those cases.

I have family who sometimes express their belief that the world is going to hell in a handbasket because of gays and their desire to be married and I DEFEND THEIR RIGHT to be married TO MY FAMILY.
Thank you for your replies it helps me come up with good solid answers to make my 'born again' but never mormon, brother and sister think!

It's easy to let stuff that doesn't directly impact our lives slide off to the side. And honestly I think most people, straight, gay, single, or married, don't even realize the list of government-sanctioned benefits is a very very long list.

I appreciate that you are willing to take a strong stance that puts you in conflict with members of your own family.

Best wishes.

Since my DH and I got "legally" and formally married, I have not seen a big list of benefits -- only that some things are easier: automatic next of kin status (of course you still have to prove you are married, people won't just assume it), automatic inheritance, etc. Other than that, our taxes have gone up and our eligibility for school and other financial aid has all but disappeared.
I don't believe there is any "long list of government benefits".

Many of them are so "under the radar" that you might be surprised.

Also, consider that in many cases lesbian or gay partners have been categorically denied any status whatsoever with regard to things that most heterosexual couples take completely for granted. The list compiled by the General Accounting Office takes all of that into account. And since the popularity of DoM laws and amendments on a state-by-state basis, the list of exclusions against lesbian and gay couples has actually increased since the list was compiled in 1997.

You go wanting to learn more a out this issue. Awesome

There are NO tax benefits to being married. In fact, your taxes will go UP, and you will no longer qualify for aid you might have gotten as a single individual.
This is why senior citizens often do NOT want to get married, they prefer domestic partnerships so they don't lose their benefits and incur higher tax liabilities.

With Senior citizens, what they lose by marriage is the benefits, social security, pensions from their prior spouse.

If I didn't know what they were, I would want to be informed so I could list some off the top of my head for someone who's being a jackass about it. To most of us here, equality and dignity and respect are enough, but not to everybody.

Do we tell people who ask for the specific reasons that the church is BS to explain why they need to know? We could just tell them that, bottom line, it's a cult. When did asking for more information to better understand become a bad thing around here? I only remember that being a bad thing in the eyes of TSCC.

As I was catching up on posts from the last few days, I noticed a big uptick in defensive posts and posters arrogantly jumping to conclusions about the intention of another poster (this is NOT directed specifically at any one person).

What is the deal with assuming the very worst about others' intentions? Didn't we all get that enough from TSCC and the leaders and some members? We're all guilty of it sometimes, but why come out swinging as a knee-jerk reaction?

Maybe I'm the one who's misreading the OP's intententions, but it appeared to me that the OP was asking to be educated not to minimize the importance of respect and dignity. I knew most of what's been listed, but I'm going to read the link that xyz provided (maybe not all 74 pages in ONE sitting).

It's kind of ironic to ask someone why dignity and respect aren't enough in a reply that is full of disrespect.

+1!

The time to jump all over a poster asking for information is if they take the information offered and try to minimize it.

That being said, rights are a very tender area for those who are being denied them. I'm guessing there was some instinctive lashing out as a painful area was touched.

That's what happened to me... I was in a bad mood yesterday and with the recent family discussions regarding some of the recent political changes, I read the original post as "What would be the point of gays wanting to get married" in the tone of a religious conservative, instead of an honest request for information, which is how it was meant.

Sometimes, things read on the internet are not necessarily read with the same "voice" that the writer intended.

I tried to edit my post, but the edit button seems to be missing (I thought we could edit our posts? Oh well)

So, anyway, I apologize for my part and I'll try to not let what's happening personally taint my view of other peoples posts.

Immigration - if your partner is a foreign national and needs a visa to remain in the country with you, not being able to get a marriage-based green card can lead to a lot of heartbreak.

that is it! Same thing we all want out of marriage. To be family with somebody.

Hospital visitation rights?

I haven't read through the entire list, sorry if this is a repeat...
just to fit into the tribal community and do/be like every other couple...or to have that right to have the same status as every other couple if desired.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2012 02:08PM by dec.

Expand a bit on estate issues. As spouse doesn't have to pay estate taxes on their half of the estate. A domestic partner does.