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Mark Stewart on Civil Rights |
A: We should formally assist only when the discrimination takes place in government employment.ÿ In the Free Market, private action is almost always better than legislation.ÿ We don't need lawyers to sue and determine whether an employer is underpaying women or not hiring them due to misogyny.ÿ Women who feel discriminated against have the ultimate power -- go elsewhere.ÿ I believe in private advocates, who'll help a woman who is potentially timid about speaking up for her skills and her value to the company.ÿ That to me is a very good kind of feminist legal aid: "my client is worth more to you than the man you are paying $5/hr more; compensate her fairly now, or she's going to work for your competitor."ÿÿ Alternatively, "Compensate her fairly now, or she's going to work for your competitor, you Pig".
A: Government should stay out of the marriage business.ÿ Marriages will continue to be consummated and blessed by a couple's religion and community the way they have for hundreds of years before governments began to intrude. To the extent government is offering benefits to a spouse, it is sensible and fair that they be offered to same-sex partners.
I do ask same sex couples, and the LGBT community to yield the word "Marriage".ÿ It angers devout people who mean you no harm.ÿ They just don't want to see their private, holy institutions besmirched.ÿ
LGBTers have come such a long way in such a short time; it would be a shame if political militancy causes your potential allies among the religious (I am one of them) to be severed.ÿ You can have every benefit of government by calling is a "domestic partnership"; just refrain from calling it "marriage".