Sarah Palin Admits Marriage is a "Business Contract," So Why Can't Same-Sex Couples Do Business?

Today kicks off Freedom to Marry Week, where LGBTQ+A bloggers will be writing about the the freedom to marry, and supporters of marriage equality have found an unlikely ally in Sarah Palin who said in a her recent interview with Esquire :

[T]here are definitely gonna be tough parts in marriage. You have to look at those tough times and remember that you have essentially a business contract with this person. You've signed an agreement: You're going to be together. And you look at it that way as you work through the tough times, because I guarantee the better time is there on the other side. That's how we've looked at it.

Yup, Palin, that brassy bastion of conservative value, just said marriage is a business contract. She didn't say "a business contract between a man and a woman," either.

Denying a class of people the right to enter into a business relationship is discriminatory. It's time those opposed to same-sex marriage drop their precious word association and realize that there should be one piece of paper that grants the same rights across the board to all adults.

For more of my essay on marriage as a civil contract, click here

Lisa Derrick is La Figa at Firedoglake.com

Comments

[JohnBisceglia]

REVISED:

Hmmmmmm......in the World of Business NO ONE would ever sell two "packages" that are radically-different in quality for the same price.

The "Hetero-package" comes complete with legal rights & protections to keep your family safe and free from unnecessary, cruel suffering.

The "NOT-hetero-package" comes without those rights; your family is a piece of dog sh*t in the eyes of the law.

Yet both packages cost the same on April 15th! How much longer will THAT nonsense continue?

[JohnBisceglia]

Hmmmmmm......in business world NO ONE would ever allow 2 radically-different "packages" for the same price.

Here we have the "Hetero-package"; it comes complete with rights & protections to keep your family safe and free from unnecessary, cruel suffering, and we have the "NOT-hetero-package", where your family is a piece of dog sh*t in the eyes of the law. Yet both packages cost the same on April 15th!

How much longer will THAT nonsense continue?

[WyomingJack]

It is a business contract which contains the words "until death do us part." At least that is the "traditional definition." So while Sarah and her ilk keep saying that the "traditional definition" of marriage is between a man and a woman they are very quick to forgoe "traditional definitions" and "traditional values" when it comes to divorce.

Yet divorcees like Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, John McCain, Rudi Guilliani, etc. who defie tradition, break their Christian vows (that were made to God and church), and dare to deny same sex marriages because it doesn't meet their pick and choose version of "traditional definition."

Shame on them.

[Romulus]

Why? Because Palin is a dork and no one should pay attention to anything she says. :-D

[RationalDubSteppa]

Why? Because the giant space god that lives on top of a cloud in space gets really Really REALLY mad when boys do it in the naughty place.

[siegfried]

Why is it restricted to couples?

[WilliePilgrim]

I think it's time for both sides to drop the semantics game. There is ground to gained by both side in following the example of many other nations by making domestic partnership legitimate and equal in the eyes of the law. I wouldn't dream of insisting that any religion or any individual following a spiritual practice be denied the right to use the word "marriage" however they see fit, including polygamy or polyandry, or whatever, but the legal aspects are seperate and apply equally to every legal contract of domestic partnership. .

[bbbtmenw]

SHE isn't agreeing with Gay marriage, just trying to find another way to benefit straight married people and cut taxes for "straight marriage" because it is a business.

Marriage is a business contract and THEY know it 'cause they forced D.O.M.A. down our throats to ignore gay marriages in our country. Pretty much the only business contracts that are able to be ignored.

REPEAL D.O.M.A. Now....If you guys are all about business, LET ME DO MY BUSINESS in peace.

[LeftRight]

What? No complaints yet that marriage cannot apply to gay people for non-religious religious reasons?? I think that our resident tr0//s are slacking now!