Civil Unions, Marriages, and Rights of Children

June 4, 2006

Dear Editor of the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

I submit the following letter for publication. It presumes to be a comprehensive solution to all political problems surrounding marriage and gay unions.

Apropos the protection of marriage and looking for equality for all, and with the love for our children foremost, let us pass three amendments to our constitution.

1. Civil unions are open to any two mentally healthy adults and they shall have the same rights and responsibilities as marriages.

2. Marriages are between a man and a woman and they have the same rights and responsibilities with civil unions except no divorce shall be granted except for the three A's: abuse, addiction and adultery (mentioned by a essayist in this paper a few weeks ago).

3. In the adoption of children, a marriage shall rank before a civil union, and a mixed-sex civil union shall rank before a one-sex civil union and that in turn before any individual. (This has nothing to do with the rights of any adult, but looks to the rights of children to be raised in an enduring home of both sexes as parents, i.e., the child needs an enduring relationship with the same two authoritative figures of both sexes in interaction.)

In a word: a marriage is a civil union between a man and a woman but where divorce is impossible. This should satisfy all people who want to promote the sanctity of marriage. And civil unions are open to all to "give it a try" if they want to (the common understanding about marriage today anyway). And the churches can decide for themselves as to whether civil unions are "monasteries of two" (for want of a better term) and should be given a special blessing, or whether a legal inability to divorce be necessary for this blessing and recognition.

The gay community should have no objection because it is not excluded from adoption, and the reason for the preference of marriages in adoption is based not only on the impossibility of divorce but also on the right of children to exposure to both sexes. And so even if a gay union were not subject to divorce it would still fall behind marriages in terms of the exposure to both sexes, and obviously there is no remedy for this for the gay community. Again: it is not a right of adults to adopt as rather the rights of children to be adopted.

A sad note: since adultery, abuse and addiction are ways out of the no-divorce marriage, they have to be discouraged with hefty fines (going to the benefit of the state).

And so indeed let us have one final convention and present these three amendments to the voters and let us then trust in the intelligence and common decency of the people of Georgia and pray for the guidance of God. And oh, let the amendments be reciprocally tied, so that if one is rejected, then all are rejected. For together they make a whole.

Philip McPherson Rudisill