As an addendum to yesterday's post about the Vermont legislature's consideration of a gender-neutered marriage bill, I found an interesting gem in this more in-depth AP story on MSNBC.com.
As you might recall, Vermont was the first state in the union to legalize civil unions back in 2000:
Supporters cast the debate as a civil rights issue, saying a civil unions law enacted by the state in 2000 has fallen short of the equality it promised same-sex couples. Its appeal has declined, too: In 2001, the state granted 1,876 civil unions, compared with only 262 last year.
To me, this makes no sense. Even though fewer and fewer gay couples are solemnizing their relationships before the state, the legislature is pushing to decimate traditional marriage.
The number of civil unions performed last year are only 14 percent of what they were in the first year - and, furthermore, those couples represent a mere 0.04 percent of the state's population.
It's tyranny of the minority, pure and simple.
Even if you're not a Vermonter, you can throw your support behind traditional marriage there by joining the Facebook group. Every battlefield counts in this effort to sustain the millenia-old model of the family as the foundation of our society.
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3 comments:
"Decimate" means to reduce by 10%.
It's also possible that same sex couples are holding off the "seperate by equal" civil union until they can have the real thing.
Just a thought.
Hmmm, I stand corrected - make that "attack" or "destroy," not decimate. Thanks for the vocabulary lesson, PF.
I disagree, though, that they're "holding off." It's not "separate but equal"... but I've gone round and round on that one enough times, I'll refer you to an earlier post we had on that argument: http://preservingmarriage.blogspot.com/2008/10/separate-but-equal.html.
decimate |ˈdesəˌmāt|
verb [ trans. ] (often be decimated)
1 kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage or part of : the project would decimate the fragile wetland wilderness | the American chestnut, a species decimated by blight.
• drastically reduce the strength or effectiveness of (something) : plant viruses that can decimate yields.
2 historical kill one in every ten of (a group of soldiers or others) as a punishment for the whole group.
PF's picking nits Christa Jeanne. Decimate is a perfectly good word to use in this situation. The second (PF's) definition comes from Roman times and does not apply to modern vocabulary.
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