|
AtMP's founders, board members and Executive Director were all delighted to sign on to Beyond Same-Sex Marriage: A New Strategic Vision.
This public statement was created by 18 concerned individuals and
joined by over 1,200 more since its release on July 26, 2006. AtMP
welcomes Beyond Marriage because it parallels AtMP's Affirmation of
Family Diversity (released in June 2000) in so many ways, and because
it draws new people into the debate about the primacy of marriage. Here
are just a few of the very powerful lines one can find in the full
statement:
- We, the undersigned—lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)
and allied activists, scholars, educators, writers, artists, lawyers,
journalists, and community organizers—seek to offer friends and
colleagues everywhere a new vision for securing governmental and
private institutional recognition of diverse kinds of partnerships,
households, kinship relationships and families. In so doing, we hope to
move beyond the narrow confines of marriage politics as they exist in
the United States today. ...
- The struggle for same-sex marriage rights is only one part of a
larger effort to strengthen the security and stability of diverse
households and families. LGBT communities have ample reason to
recognize that families and relationships know no borders and will
never slot narrowly into a single existing template. ...
- To have our government define as "legitimate families" only those
households with couples in conjugal relationships does a tremendous
disservice to the many other ways in which people actually construct
their families, kinship networks, households, and relationships. ...
- Marriage is not the only worthy form of family or relationship,
and it should not be legally and economically privileged above all
others. While we honor those for whom marriage is the most meaningful
personal ¬– for some, also a deeply spiritual – choice, we believe that
many other kinds of kinship relationship, households, and families must
also be accorded recognition. ...
- LGBT movement strategies must be sufficiently prophetic,
visionary, creative, and practical to counter the right's powerful and
effective use of "wedge" politics – the strategic marketing of fear and
resentment that pits one group against another. ...
- Winning marriage equality in order to access our partners'
benefits makes little sense if the benefits that we seek are being
shredded. ...
- Rather than focus on same-sex marriage rights as the only
strategy, we believe the LGBT movement should reinforce the idea that
marriage should be one of many avenues through which households,
families, partners, and kinship relationships can gain access to the
support of a caring civil society. ...
- We believe LGBT movement strategies must not only democratize
recognition and benefits but also speak to the widespread hunger for
authentic and just community. ...
- So many of us long for communities in which there is systemic
affirmation, valuing, and nurturing of difference, and in which
conformity to a narrow and restricting vision is never demanded as the
price of admission to caring civil society. ...
- LGBT movement strategies must never secure privilege for some
while at the same time foreclosing options for many. Our strategies
should expand the current terms of debate, not reinforce them. ...
Read the executive summary or the full statement, view all of the signatories, and sign on at www.beyondmarriage.org.
|
