Why Marriage Equality is an Important Issue

My music teacher has been married for thirty years.

      Just this summer, his husband became sick.  For the last eight months, my lessons have been sporadic as my instructor has been in and out of the hospital with his husband. 

       Yesterday, the Friday of March 29^th, his husband went into surgery to have the infection removed from his leg.  My teacher apologized for having to cancel my lesson again, and I told him that I understood, he needed to be with his husband through such serious surgery. 

        To my surprise my teacher informed me that he wouldn’t be by his husband’s side, he would be in the visitor's room or even, after nine PM, waiting in the parking lot for the visitor hours to reopen the next morning.  Directly after his surgery, only family members would be allowed to visit my music teacher’s husband.

       See the problem is my music teacher’s husband is not actually his husband.  As a gay partner in a state that doesn’t recognize any forms of same-sex marriage, my music teacher doesn’t qualify as a family member, and would be forced to visit his husband only as a friend.

           Does that affect his husband’s likely hood to survive the surgery?  Probably not.  But the mental hurt that must he must feel, not being allowed to see the person he is closest to after his surgery, may have a very real effect on his recovery.  Any heterosexual couples in this situation would take it to court, many gay couples however, have come to accept the fact that they are second class citizens in the eyes of the law.

          And that is what needs to change.  It’s not about the tax benefits or divorce protections that come with the label of marriage, it’s about the label itself.  It’s the difference between living as two really close friends, and living as a single married entity.