Jane Fonda is again in a close relationship, but prefers not to get married. She said first there is sex and then love comes much later. Civil Unions for volatile actors and others in the entertainment area and the young would be a great option for many.
I always objected to tying religion to marriage and making pledges which no one can honestly know they can uphold. It’s hypocrisy just like those in the Republican Party. I find it astounding that people can be fooled so easily.
Unfortunately, we have to appeal to the ignorant and dumb independents who don’t bother to learn anything before they vote. So slogans and soundbites which Republicans are much better at gives them an advantage even though most thinking Americans know is bullshit.
If there are children, some responsibility accrues to both men and women to make sure they are protected. It takes years for real love to develop or not develop.
Jim Kawakami, Dec 16, 2010, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com
Scott Sayare and Maria De La Baume, NY Times, Dec 15, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/world/europe/16france.html?_r=1
… Whatever their reasons, and they vary widely, French couples are increasingly shunning traditional marriages and opting instead for civil unions, to the point that there are now two civil unions for every three marriages.
When France created its system of civil unions in 1999, it was heralded as a revolution in gay rights, a relationship almost like marriage, but not quite. No one, though, anticipated how many couples would make use of the new law. Nor was it predicted that by 2009, the overwhelming majority of civil unions would be between straight couples.
It remains unclear whether the idea of a civil union, called a pacte civil de solidarité, or PACS, has responded to a shift in social attitudes or caused one. But it has proved remarkably well suited to France and its particularities about marriage, divorce, religion and taxes — and it can be dissolved with just a registered letter.
“We’re the generation of divorced parents,” explained Maud Hugot, 32, an aide at the Health Ministry who signed a PACS with her girlfriend, Nathalie Mondot, 33, this year. Expressing a view that researchers say is becoming commonplace among same-sex couples and heterosexuals alike, she added, “The notion of eternal marriage has grown obsolete.”
France recognizes only “citizens,” and the country’s legal principles hold that special rights should not be accorded to particular groups or ethnicities. So civil unions, which confer most of the tax benefits and legal protections of marriage, were made available to everyone. (Marriage, on the other hand, remains restricted to heterosexuals.) But the attractiveness of civil unions to heterosexual couples was evident from the start. In 2000, just one year after the passage of the law, more than 75 percent of civil unions were signed between heterosexual couples. That trend has only strengthened since then: of the 173,045 civil unions signed in 2009, 95 percent were between heterosexual couples. …
As with traditional marriages, civil unions allow couples to file joint tax returns, exempt spouses from inheritance taxes, permit partners to share insurance policies, ease access to residency permits for foreigners and make partners responsible for each other’s debts. Concluding a civil union requires little more than a single appearance before a judicial official, and ending one is even easier. …
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