Obama and same sex benefits — both the Left and the Right fail

Why did Obama fall short here?

Obama strongly supported gay rights during his presidential campaign. But he has outraged gay activists since then by failing to fight for two of their priorities: repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, and ending the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which forbids gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military.

One step at a time, I guess. Political changes usually occur slowly in peaceful countries but if Obama really wants to be the voice of change, I think it would make more sense for him to be more revolutionary.

Anyway, Obama is damned no matter what he does. He will never be able to please everybody with this file because opponents are at polar opposites. However, people are at polar opposites in their tastes for music too. Have you ever wondered why America is able to foster markets for every conceivable style (and quality!) of music? I think the answer is that there is not one single monopoly in the supply and the recognition of value in the delivery of music. You can listen to the authorities from MTV or from the Grammy’s or from trashy internet blogs. Furthermore, people truly do not care what kind of music you enjoy in your own bedrooms. All music is equal.

Falling short in expanding same-sex “equality” is a good thing, in my opinion. [This has nothing to do with equality, by the way. It is more accurately described as an extension of state benefits. Whether you are gay, straight, married, single, widowed, on the hunt, shacked up, shipped out or whatever, the government has no business treating you differently (or forcing other people to treat you differently) from anybody else. Your relationship is nobody's business but your own. That is true equality.] This latest fail by Obama is good because the government has once again demonstrated that an enforced monopoly delivering a single service inherently fails to deliver what people want. This failure provides an opportunity for people to reject government authority in the marriage business.

As with everything else the government does, people who are marginalized by government failure are left to do two things:

• keep lobbying government like good little socialists, or
• look to the private sector to deliver the service they want in competition with government failure.

The government does not need to be the only agency for recognizing marriage. Anybody can recognize marriages and regular folk do so informally all of the time. Tons of couples — gay, straight or whatever — identify themselves as being married without any government decree all of the time. There is nothing wrong with that.

Warning: The rest of this post involves fabulation of a hypothetical proposal in recognizing and authorizing marriage in competition with government authority. You really have to have a mind that is both creative and genuinely open to change if you want to see equality. I will also go so far as to say you must have an innate respect for individual freedom.

Credit bureaus, better business bureaus and safety standards are business models to emulate. Just like your credit rating can be recorded, reported, amended and researched, your marital status can be registered in the same manner without the need for government. It does not even have to be very complicated. Private formal marriage registries can be as simple as a copyright office.

All of the hot shot celebrities who poured money into demonstrations against Proposition 8 failed in their quest for scoring public relations points. Instead of wasting money, they should have organized their own private marriage registry called The Hollywood Marriage Contract Authority or something like that to compete with government authority. Such an institution would be land breaking for advancing human rights. As if it were a church, The Hollywood Marriage Contract Authority would offer marriage registration endorsed by Hollywood celebrities. The fact that these supporters are neither bureaucrats nor priests nor bankers would probably lend more credibility to the marriages they endorse. They could even offer choice in contracts, can you imagine that?

Private businesses who wanted to uphold a reputation of fairness to their employees would not have their hands tied by government decrees. Just like businesses can earn awards from better business bureaus, so can they earn awards in extending marital benefits. Such businesses could simply say: “We recognize the virtues espoused by The Hollywood Marriage Contract Authority in our workplace.” In practice, their marriage registrations would be like any other civil contracts.