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06/03/2008
Video: 't'-less Mat spouts fact-less logic
Wanna see yet another blatant lie from a "pro-family" lawyer? Yea? Well check out this clip from a press conference held last week by the Family Research Council, in which the Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver, an attorney who argued against marriage equality in CA, flat-out lies about one's ability to marry/civil union multiple partners:
Only problem for Mat? His fear-mongery polygamy argument is COMPLETE AND UTTER BULLSH*T! A Vermont civl union is treated as the legal equivalent of a marriage, so just like with any prior marriages one might have entered before having a CA wedding, they would have to dissolve that civil union before entering into a CA union with a different partner. And the same also goes for CA domestic partnerships: While a couple can of course bump up their DP to a full marriage, It is already illegal for one to be in both a CA domestic partnership and a Massachusetts marriage/VT civil union. Bigamy laws apply just like they do to heterosexual unions! There is no debate on this subject -- it has already been tested!
But since desperate times call for desperate lies, Mat, a lawyer -- A LAWYER! -- is deliberately confusing folks on this non-issue. He surely surely knows better, it's just that he also knows that many people do not and will not take the time to research the subject. So just like these folks always do, Mat is muddying the waters of this conversation, infesting it with fabrications that he surely hopes will be adopted by at least a few voters. It's blatantly offensive to gay couples desperate to marry. However, even among those who are personally no fan of marriage equality, the opposition's constant and unscrupulous dealings should raise a red flag!
Full FRC video (above part comes around the 17 min mark) [FRC]
**Oh, and by the way -- that quick edit during Mat's bout of fibbery was courtesy of the Family Research Council, not us. Why did they cut Mat off in that hasty way? Well, we imagine it's because his untruths got even more egregious, and even they realized such might not be good for their cause. If anyone was on site, please let us know!!
Your thoughts
Besides having a church wedding, my husband and I also registered as domestic partners in Minneapolis. Although the registration gave us no legal stance, we are still required to notify them if our domestic partnership is dissolved. We were also warned not to enter into any other such arrangement with another person.
Posted by: Mike in the Tundra | Jun 3, 2008 12:41:13 PM
My mom and dad both came from large families, and both of their families are rife with the fodder from which soap-operas spring, so when it comes to having intimate knowledge of the vilest underbelly of the social institution of marriage I am the goto guy. And I have to say that is not a distinction that I would happily have chosen, it was just inescapable.
That said, the wife of one of my uncles Alfred (my mom's sister's husband - retched creature that he is) had just been left by his third or fourth wife Janice. Alfred and Janice were still married at the time that Janice married another man in a different state. Being the vindictive sort that Alfred is, he proceeded to have Janice arrested for polygamy and her butt did spend some time warming a bench in the local slammer.
So, while it is technically possible even in marriage contracts for one to become a polygamist, it certainly is illegal and not without repercussion especially if the one scorned finds out about it.
Posted by: Dick Mills | Jun 3, 2008 12:59:17 PM
Shocking! To think that a right-winger would lie to advance their agenda.
I'm shocked. SHOCKED!
Posted by: Justin Tyme | Jun 4, 2008 12:18:24 PM
Well Justin, it's certainly easy for us to trivialize it. But these lies are exactly the reason why so many people are being duped into voting against us.
Posted by: G-A-Y | Jun 4, 2008 12:27:35 PM
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