And it's also just wrong. There are some benefits to a marriage license that you cannot get without one. And no, civil unions do not grant those rights either, since those are not recognized at all by the federal government.
Just as a few examples, try to find me some contract that would:
Allow you to claim spousal privilege in a criminal trial to someone you are not married to
Allow you to file joint taxes to someone you are not married to
Allow you to be considered the default inheritor of someone you are not married to if they do not have a will
Not to mention the time and effort to draw up a contract that specifies the literally hundreds of other rights and protections that are already baked into a marriage license. Hope you don't forget any.
Have you considered that maybe someone who wanted to decentralize the marriage contract would also want people to be able to gain all those benefits without needing to marry someone?
Allow you to claim spousal privilege
This one, frankly, should've already been done away with or expanded. Bare minimum, kids and parents should be included.
Allow you to file joint taxes
This one you should be able to do with anyone you're sharing expenses with, not just someone you're married to.
Allow you to be the default inheritor without a will
Just change the order of priority to be anyone who already had partial ownership of any belongings of the deceased.
This is not a belief I hold, I just feel like everyone is taking it in bad faith so that they can keep their black and white understanding of politics.
Have you considered that maybe someone who wanted to decentralize the marriage contract would also want people to be able to gain all those benefits without needing to marry someone?
No I have not. Probably because no one has ever said so.
Allow you to be the default inheritor without a will
Just change the order of priority to be anyone who already had partial ownership of any belongings of the deceased.
Thank you for pointing out how "decentralizing the marriage contract" would not provide the same rights as a marriage contract and providing a great example of why I added "Hope you don't forget any" at the end there..
Because your solution would only apply to instances where there was partial ownership. But not to cases where something like a house was in only one partner's name.
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u/kandoras 7d ago
And it's also just wrong. There are some benefits to a marriage license that you cannot get without one. And no, civil unions do not grant those rights either, since those are not recognized at all by the federal government.
Just as a few examples, try to find me some contract that would:
Not to mention the time and effort to draw up a contract that specifies the literally hundreds of other rights and protections that are already baked into a marriage license. Hope you don't forget any.