For some of my friends who raise personal objections to marriage equality, they still recognize the importance of being accepting. And many of them also recognize that regardless of what they choose to believe or practice at home or at their church, that doesn’t give them the right to discriminate.
I often say that if you want to really want to understand the contract of marriage, just ask anyone who has been divorced. The marriage contract is one of property rights. Or maybe you can look in the Bible to see what Adam had to say about divorce, since Eve was his second wife.
Marriage and family are ordained of God. The family is the most important social unit in time and in eternity. Under God’s great plan of happiness, families can be sealed in temples and be prepared to return to dwell in His holy presence forever. That is eternal life!
It’s the same girl-who-has-everything story. You know, the one where she’s insecure and scared and unhappy and has marriage problems and doesn’t know how to handle stardom and screws up right and left and gets in with the wrong people and goes down the drain.
Now that virtually every career is an option for ambitious girls, it can no longer be considered regressive or reactionary to reintroduce discussion of marriage and motherhood to primary education. We certainly do not want to return to the simplistic duality of home economics classes for girls and wood shop for boys.
I may get married later or may never get married. But I want babies, so I’ll have to get married. I want fat, cute babies. Every girl has to think about it at some point. For me, marriage is about family, and that’s why I find it necessary. Till then, it’s normal to have a partner and do your own thing.
I never thought I’d spend all my life with Gary. I suppose I was quite cynical about marriage. But with Jude, I knew right from the beginning: there was an electricity I’d never felt before. It was so easy, we talked for hours. It was a relief, really.
For a long time, I have been wanting to write a book for singles that would help them in the dating process and in getting ready for marriage. Most of my writing, I’ve written to couples who are already married, because I’ve been doing marriage counseling for 35 years.
Redefining marriage will have huge implications for what is taught in our schools, and for wider society. It will redefine society since the institution of marriage is one of the fundamental building blocks of society. The repercussions of enacting same-sex marriage into law will be immense.
I think it really changes things when you’re able to get married. I mean, the Marriage Equality Act was super important. I think you cannot believe it happened as fast as it did. For a lot of gay people, it’s very surprising. You thought that this is going to be a struggle forever.
Doing difficult things like passing marriage equality, passing the Dream Act, doing common sense things that allow new American immigrants to fully participate, pay their taxes, play by the rules and take care of their families. That’s the inclusive America that I believe all of us want to move to.
I had left everything because of my marriage. As a girl, I know what my responsibility towards my husband and his family is, and I used to do everything according to his will. I kept all his family members in mind, but he still expected more from me.
My parents had an arranged marriage, as did so many other people when I was growing up. My father came and had a life in the United States one way and my mother had a different one, and I was very aware of those things. I continue to wonder about it, and I will continue to write about it.
There is no denying that unhappiness – even violence – exists in some arranged marriages. Or that some arranged marriages are borne out of cruelty. And part of that six percent global divorce rate can be attributed to the powerful stigma against divorce that’s present in countries where arranged marriage is common.
I did not have a personal relationship with Jesus until I met my nanny, who helped me through a failing marriage and raising my two boys in a New York City apartment. She showed me by example what it was like to be able to talk to Jesus and bring all my cares and worries to Him. That was in 1990.
Until Ranveer was born in August 2005, three years into our marriage, I was working in Hindi or South Indian films. After marriage, I began learning how to run a house. My mother wanted to teach me the basics, but I was never home. So when my mother-in-law taught me chores, it was hard to adjust.
I was 21 and had been going out with my boyfriend for two years when I found out I was pregnant – despite being told by doctors that I was sterile. Jamie’s father and I hadn’t discussed marriage, and to me, it wasn’t something to be entered into just to stop gossip.
Vivek is a very supportive man. If I am in the kitchen doing something, he comes and helps. I don’t think marriage will change anything for us. Our careers will not be affected after marriage. He believes in gender equality and is a man of today’s time.
It’s a life choice to be a girl chef, as it is to be a boy chef. It feels pretty natural to me. It’s a full-time, full-scale, full physical job, and a lot of times, it can take the place of kids and family. To be in this career is much more difficult for a woman to have a family, marriage – whatever that means. It’s not a 9-5 job.
I have an American son and an American partner, so marriage might logistically make sense at one point. My partner is a stay-at-home father, so if he wants to be on my health plan, or tax wise, or maybe on paper we want to have our I’s dotted and our T’s crossed, but emotionally, neither of us really feels the need for it.
Generally, in Gujarati families, people get married early, and all my friends are married with two kids. My father had told me, ‘If you do not find a right partner, do not get married’; that’s the advice he has always given me. So, I will never compromise in my marriage.
As my friend said to me, when you have children, typically in a second marriage, when you’re older and you get married again to a woman who would have children, you must always remember that you make sure the children attend a college where the commencement ceremonies are held in a facility with a wheelchair accessible ramp.
After my second marriage failed… I said, ‘You know, could I have a relationship with a man? A loving relationship with a man that would involve intimacy?’ For a while, before I did get into a relationship, I saw, for a few years, either women or men. And I found that I could be attracted to both.
What I believe is that marriage is between a man and a woman, but what I also believe is that we have an obligation to make sure that gays and lesbians have the rights of citizenship that afford them visitations to hospitals, that allow them to be, to transfer property between partners, to make certain that they’re not discriminated on the job.
