Legal marriage for all

An actual, if anonymous, lesbian asks:

May I humbly suggest to whomever may be the naming-powers-that-be that name of this week be changed to "Freedom to have one's marriage legally recognized" week?

I've *been* married for 15 years. I just live in a part of the world in which my marriage is not legally recognized. What's missing is neither commitment, nor 'social recognition' (my friends recognize my spouse as such, and those who do not are not my friends).

What is missing is the legal protection involved in knowing, e.g., that I will be able to see, get medical information about, and be able to make decisions on behalf of, my spouse if she's ever in hospital, g-d forbid have her body shipped home for burial if something should happen to her while she's away, knowledge that our wills will be respected for what they say (in e.g. Virginia there have been threats by certain groups to have even such things as wills declared invalid on their face, on account of their being attempts to create through contract something "similar to" the legal institution of marriage, and/or attempts to create through contract "the legal incidents of marriage"), etc. etc.

We are lucky enough to be well off enough to afford a stack of legal documents (we're upwards of 25 each, at this point) that would provide some leverage in court under such horrible circumstances. But leverage is far short of the guarantee afforded couples whose marriages are legally recognized. Brass tacks, folks.

Indeed. Let me also add a few things I've learned from talking to lesbian friends with kids: having to (pay to) "adopt" your own children, if you're not the birth mother; having to pay for separate health care coverage for your partner (who isn't your legal "husband" or "wife") and children, if your employer offers it at all; having to limit where you can accept jobs based on whether your family is merely denied legal equality, or likely to be actively persecuted by legislators who want to take your children away.