{"id":34795,"date":"2011-12-27T13:07:13","date_gmt":"2011-12-27T20:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=34795"},"modified":"2011-12-27T13:07:18","modified_gmt":"2011-12-27T20:07:18","slug":"the-basis-of-marriage-is-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/12\/the-basis-of-marriage-is-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"The basis of marriage is happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Stephanie C. Warriner<\/p><\/div>\n

This is in response to Sen. Bill Sharer\u2019s recent column, \u201cNature already decided who qualifies for marriage.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

To assume that \u201cnatural\u201d marriage is based solely on what will benefit society, on the basis of a couples\u2019 ability to procreate and care for children by encouraging \u201cthe traditional family,\u201d indicates that you are clearly misguided.<\/p>\n

First, according to the 2010 Annual Report of the New Mexico Judiciary there were, at years\u2019 end, 11,504 open cases regarding domestic relations issues as they pertain to child involvement only (i.e. child support, custody and visitation, dissolution of marriage with custody). The report states that family court services pertaining to child access and visitation has seen a \u201csubstantial increase\u201d in priority consultations from its 2009 report by a staggering 30 percent, which was already significantly higher than in 2008.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, these increases come with considerable decreases in clinician hours; priority consultation and mediation caseloads continue to increase while the court\u2019s resources continue to decrease. These statistics all apply to \u201cthe traditional family,\u201d those heterosexual individuals who married in the \u201cnatural\u201d way. After reviewing these numbers and observing our overburdened and underfunded court system, I fail to see how the \u201cnatural\u201d marriage of the 11,504 open cases in our judiciary are benefiting our society.<\/p>\n

Not procreation of child-rearing<\/h3>\n

Moreover, the assumption that gay couples shouldn\u2019t be allowed to marry due to their biological inability to procreate with each other leads to the conclusion that marriage laws already need a radical change.<\/p>\n

I find it rather interesting that you would suggest that \u201ccommitment and love are not sufficient reasons to alter the definition of marriage.\u201d\u00a0 For instance, if I were to take your premise seriously, infertile heterosexual couples \u2013 couples \u201cnature already decided\u201d can\u2019t have children \u2013 should not be allowed to marry either. I highly doubt anyone would agree to that.<\/p>\n

Yet, when I contemplate the response our society would have on the motives of people marrying, such as love, money, social status, even citizenship, it clearly denotes that love is a basis for marriage, not procreation or child-rearing.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, if \u201cthe only reason the state has any business in marriage is because of children,\u201d we would then have to mandate that marriage exists solely for procreation or child-rearing. We certainly can\u2019t allow married couples to willingly remain childless, can we? So, as clear opponent to same-sex marriage do you not take the above principles seriously? Outrageous, right?<\/p>\n

And if the state has such an interest in maintaining marriage for the children, what does that mean for the hundreds of children born in the State of New Mexico to unwed parents? Do those children deserve less from the state, or does that state have an obligation to force those parents to marry?<\/p>\n

Agreeing on one thing<\/h3>\n

According to John Locke, a known advocate of natural rights and the Lockean theories that were invoked in the United States Declaration of Independence, what they sought was happiness.<\/p>\n

So, if \u201cmarriage is natural law\u201d and natural law is based on happiness, then the basis of marriage is happiness, regardless of age, ability to procreate or sexual orientation. I do agree with you on one thing: Marriage is far more than a legal contract endorsed by the state.<\/p>\n

Warriner is a Democrat and life-long resident of New Mexico, and presently resides in Albuquerque with her fianc\u00e9. She is a 2008 graduate of New Mexico State University with a bachelor\u2019s in government and philosophy. Currently, she is an EMBA student in the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico. In a nutshell, she is an Irish-Mexican, so naturally she enjoys loud music, a pint of chilled Guinness and huge family gatherings.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In response to Sen. Bill Sharer\u2019s recent column, to assume that \u201cnatural\u201d marriage is based solely on what will benefit society, on the basis of a couples\u2019 ability to procreate and care for children by encouraging \u201cthe traditional family,\u201d indicates that you are clearly misguided.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2508,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[233,107],"class_list":["post-34795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-gay-and-lesbian-issues","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2508"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}