Gay Marriage, Tiger's Prenup & the Law

I got this from Cup 'o Joel: http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/politics/2009/12/03/tiger-woods-prenup-gay-marriage-and-the-law/

This is my favorite part of the article:

So: Tiger cheated on his wife, probably multiple times. He’s paying her millions of dollars to stay with him. They’re in legal negotiations over financial terms of their continued marriage. If she stays with him another couple of years, she’ll be “vested” — you don’t usually hear that term outside of 401(k) hearings — and receive the full amount of a settlement.

I’ll grant you, this is an extreme case. What Woods and his wife call “marriage” looks more like a cold and calculated contractual business partnership from the outside. In the eyes of the law, that’s essentially what marriage is: A contract between two people that gives them certain rights as a couple and responsibilities to the other. There’s nothing mystical or sacred about it from the state’s viewpoint.

But the extremity of Tiger’s case helps clarify, a bit, what the gay marriage fight is all about: The right of two people of the same sex to make a contract with each other. Legally, it’s not about “sanctity” or “sacredness” or any of that stuff because the law doesn’t — shouldn’t — concern itself with such things. Certainly, it appears, Tiger Woods hasn’t. Yet his contract with his wife receives the respect of the law. It’s all a bit bewildering.