Marriage amendment's impact felt around Ohio (straight couples impacted)

[Quetzal]

Marriage amendment's impact felt around Ohio

If Beverly Kinzy, a single nursing student at Washington State Community College, is ever taken to the hospital with a serious illness or injury, she may have no one to speak on her behalf or make decisions.

"It scares me," said Kinzy, 45, a Marietta mother of adult children who lives with a male companion. "For example, a year and a half ago I had surgery and my daughter had to come from out of town to sign papers. He couldn't sign or have power of attorney."
Kinzy and her partner have been living together for two years. While marriage may be in the future, it's not being planned right now because she wants to finish school first.

A new amendment to the Ohio Constitution, which was approved by voters last month, establishes a legal definition of marriage, which says it is exclusively between one man and one woman as husband and wife.

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Marriage amendment's impact felt around Ohio

[napi21]

1. How does this eliminate the ability of anyone naming another

via POA from having the power to sign papers of authority in one, many or all circumstances? It doesn't have to be a relative to give power of attorney to.

I know there are unforseen consequences in the marriage ammendment, but it does not affect the authority of a POA at all, as far as I know.

[queerart]

2. Ahhhhh.... Now It's A Panic.....

Because it (now) involves the rights of "straights".....

That's funny.....

It's A Simple Matter Of The Chickens Coming Home To Roost!

[eyesroll]

3. From what I've heard...many of these types of amendments are so broadly

worded that they can be construed to mean that people can't have *roommates* (i.e. co-sign a lease) unless they're married or related.

Unfortunately, painting this as "oops, we've messed it up for everyone" might help get the whole thing overturned -- people tend not to care unless it affects them personally.

[Ian David]

4. Black Georgians hurt by homophobia

Black Georgians hurt by homophobia
To the Editors:
Re “State supreme court strikes down hate crime law” (news, Oct. 29):
Here is an example of the unintended consequences of small-mindedness.

Georgia tried to introduce a hate crimes law to protect people from crimes “motivated by race, religion, gender, national origin or sexual orientation.”

Well, the forces of bigotry and homophobia didn’t like the word “orientation” being in there. Why? Apparently they wanted to be free to attack gay people, I guess.

So, they re-worded the law, and it passed, defining a hate crime as one where the where a victim is chosen because of “bias or prejudice.”

A white man and a white woman beat the daylights out of two black men, and received an additional two years on their sentence because it was a hate crime under the law, motivated by bias or prejudice.

But the sentence was overturned unanimously by the Georgia Supreme Court because the hate crimes law is “too vague.” Unintended consequences.

If the Georgia state legislature, progressive paragons of social justice that they are, had seen fit to leave the original wording intact, this would not have happened.

Sorry, black people of Georgia. It looks like you, too, are victims of homophobia.
http://www.sovo.com/2004/11-5/view/letters/index.cfm

[livinginphotographs]

5. My response to this:

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Tough fucking shit. You vote homophobia into law, you get what you asked for.

What goes around comes around.

[renaissanceguy]

6. Exactly.

Let them see what it's like not to have any rights.