Society took another step forward to becoming “gender free” with new legislation on the west coast. Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation in California last week that allows same-sex couples to be pronounced “spouse and spouse.”
In California, Jerry Brown says you can be wed “spouse to spouse”. donkeyhotey donkeyhotey.wordpress.com
Senator Mark Leno introduced Bill 1306 that proposed the change in language.
The new measure strikes from the state’s family code the references to marriage as a union “between a man and a woman” and replaces the terms “husband” and “wife” with the term “spouse” throughout state ordinances
“I am pleased Governor Brown has recognized the importance of this bill, which makes it explicitly clear in state law that every loving couple has the right to marry in California,” said Leno. “This legislation removes outdated and biased language from state codes and recognizes all married spouses equally, regardless of their gender.”
The bill was co-sponsored by Attorney General Kamala D. Harris, Equality California (EQCA) and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR).
Michael Brown writes in Charisma Magazine that he questions the logic that “spouse and spouse” rather than “husband and wife” is a way “to eliminate confusion” and the terms of “husband and wife” are “discriminatory.”
“The implications of redefining marriage are staggering, and those of us who love and cherish marriage and family need to redouble our efforts and renew our courage to stand up for what is right and what is best, making a fresh determination to swim against the current flood tide of semantic and social confusion,” wrote Brown.
Matthew McReynolds of the Pacific Justice Institute said in a statement that the new law “continues the pattern we’ve been seeing the last few years of politicians ignoring the people to advance the agenda of marriage redefinition. What these politicians don’t want people to know is that their actions are illegitimate. Contrary to media myths, Prop. 8 has not been invalidated on a statewide basis. Instead, these politicians are exercising raw power, ignoring the Constitution and counting on the people and the courts not to hold them accountable.”
Similarly, the National Organization for Marriage argued that the law represents “further proof that redefining marriage is not simply about ‘equality’ or expanding the institution to include more kinds of relationships; it is about fundamentally altering the meaning of the institution itself, and discarding terms like ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ to the ash heap of history.”
Kaye Wonderhouse - Catherine "Kaye" Wonderhouse, a proud descendant of the Wunderhaus family is the Colorado Correspondent who will add more coverage, interviews and reports from this midwest area.
