Now that the good judge has overturned the stupid Prop 8, I have

[Booster]

a question. When Prop 8 first came up, I read that married people have somewhere around 1750 benefits that the rest of us (no matter who we are) don't have. I certainly haven't read all of the benefits (got to do that), but my question is why should ANY group of people have 1750 benefits that the rest of us don't have? My pension for example. As a single person I can't leave it to anyone, and even if I was a single parent I couldn't leave it to my kids - it can only be left to a spouse. Anybody got any info that I missed that shows a single group of people should have more rights than the others?

[grantcart]

1. I believe that it is well established that the Government has the right

to advance policies that are 'in the public interest' that give preference to a group of people, as long as entry into that group of people is not done on a discrimantory manner.


For example it is well established that areas with high home ownership have lower crime rates. Therefore the government undertakes significant tax and other policies to make it easy for first time home owners to buy property. Home owners have the 'right' to deduct interest payments etc.

For the same reason the goverment has an interest in promoting stable family units.

The argument against 8 was that the government established these 'rights' or privledges and then excluded one group of people from ever gaining access to them = a violation of the 14th ammendment of equal protection.

The government has the right to enact policies that will help various groups, public transportation users, married couples, homeowners, for example, but they do not have the right to restrict entry into these groups based on race, sex, sexual orientation etc.

[Booster]

2. A very good answer and I know you are correct, but isn't it

discrimantory to give benefits to married people and not give anything even close to single people? Now that I typed that I have to check and see if single people have any benefits that married people don't have, besides the fact that they are single.