I read that Cheetah, that marvelous chimp from the Tarzan movies is still alive and just celebrated a birthday in the 70's. I believe his first Tarzan movie was in 1934, the year I was born. Wow! I wonder what he has been doing in all these years after the movies.
On marriage again. Elaine and I went to a marvelous gay wedding a couple of months ago. We knew both parties and they are real nice, church-attending, honest people with good jobs. It was a conservative wedding with an emcee and a dj and lots of guests, most of whom were "straight". The parties now call themselves "husband". They had lived together for some time before the wedding.
Scenario: two men live together for 20 years. One is in a bad accident and in the critical unit of a hospital. The other man cannot visit his partner in the hospital because he is not a legal spouse or relative. Does that seem fair?
Many many years ago, when I worked for the Government, I adjudicated a case where the partner of a man for over 20 years wanted to file for widow's benefits when his partner died. As a new adjudicator, I did not know how to handle it.. my boss hunted for a long time through State case law until he found a statement in California law that stated: "Marriage is a contract between a man and a woman.".. or words to that effect, and disallowed the man's claim.
I believe that Massachusetts is now the only State that recognizes same-sex marriage. What does that mean for insurance entitlements such as Social Security? Interesting.
1 comment:
This is a comment on my comments.. the "wedding" that I mentioned was really a "wedding reception". The actual wedding was held in a different state.
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