• 03:35 SUSAN BOYLE'S ALBUM COMES OUT ON NOV. 24th. Lets show the record companies it is about the voice not the look. PURCHASE THIS ALBUM!!! #

• 22:54 Governor of RI can SUCK IT: bit.ly/1qTVt3 #

• 15:19 *sings* Caught in a bad romance... I want your love... LADY GAGA I LOVE YOU!!! #
• 18:06 Yes Heather Locklear returns TUESDAY to Melrose Place. Watch it on the CW at 9 PM. #

• 21:53 Well it looks like ABC can suck it officially. I won't be watching anything this network again. They cancelled Eastwick. SO DONE WITH THEM! #
• 21:58 If you were a fan of EASTWICK please write to the ABC about it. This show shouldn't have been cancelled. #

• 14:34 have to do math homework now. After that I am going to post a first writer's quote from a book I bought yesterday at the Library book sale. #
• 14:35 @wincomlib I loved the book sale yesterday. I bought 2 bags of books while my aunt bought 4. Thanks for the reading material. :-) #
• 14:40 Big Ang ft. Siobhan- Wifey I can't stop listening to this damn song. If I don't I won't get my math done. I SUCK. #

• 17:38 I am furious with ABC right now. There are rumors that they are going to cancel EASTWICK. This is one of two shows I actually watch. UGH! #
• 17:44 www.petitiononline.com/Eastwick/ sign this petition if you LOVE EASTWICK. #

• 04:11 @GailSimone Thanks for closing the Donna storyline in Wonder Woman. :-) I hope to see more of her in WW. LONG LIVE DONNA TROY 4EVA!! #

• 02:56 Well it is november and I have decided to take up the challenge that is NANO. I already wrote over 3,000 words for the 50,000 tonight. #
• 02:58 my plate looks like this right now: School, Nano, Family, and Comic book. I have a full plate right now and I am still looking to move also. #
• 02:59 Bought a bunch of How to Draw Manga books. I hope they can help me to actually improve my artwork. The comic book is very important to me. #

Eric M. Patterson

Kimberly Duvall

English 112

22 October, 2009

Position Paper

Marriage vs. Civil Unions for Same-Sex Couples

A very hot topic in the last presidential election was on the issue of Same-Sex Marriage. Many of the politicians that were in this battle were stating that they do not support Same-Sex Marriages, but they would support Civil Unions or Domestic Partnerships. This issue became one that was scrutinized heavily in the media and mainly presented as the clear alternative to Same-Sex marriage without many facts. I want to present what rights and responsibilities cannot be obtained in a Civil Union, but will be obtained in Marriage.

I have to show the audience what the clear differences are in rights between an actual legal marriage and a civil union. In a legal marriage you gain many tax advantages, but this is not where the main concern comes in for me. The main concern I have that people think that people in Civil Unions suddenly obtain the most basic rights that are privileged to the married but the simple fact is that over 1,000 Federal rights cannot be obtained through a Civil Union. That is a staggering amount of rights that are not obtained and one of the biggest rights is Social Security benefits. If a spouse dies you can obtain their social security benefits to help you live your life, but a same-sex couple that has been together the same amount of time will not be able to obtain these benefits under Federal law. (Civil Marriage)

We often forget that these are individuals that are trying to live their life much as we are. The movie “Tying the Knot” by Director Jim De Seve puts a very human face on the struggle for same-sex marriage. We see two couples that would have benefited from the right to marry. One is a gentleman named Earl who would not be living in a rundown shack if the will his partner had made to secure his future had held up in court, but due to the family of the partner being greedy they found reasons to deny the gentleman the farm. The other case involves a woman whose partner was a police woman. This woman put her life on the line every day to serve and protect people much like myself and she ultimately paid the price of protecting with her life. In normal situations the spouse of the deceased would gain the pension benefits of the slain officer, but due to the fact that they were unable to marry the lady was unable to obtain these pension benefits and now has to struggle due to the sudden death of her loved one. In Civil Unions these rights would not have been covered. The family could have still fought to take the farm and the pension benefits often would not be granted. This doesn’t make Civil Unions a clear alternative when you are trying to protect someone you hold dear to your heart.

As I stated above one of the reasons that this issue is so compelling to me is because I saw how Civil Unions were put in the press as the only real alternative to marriage for same-sex couples. Individuals took this at face value instead of doing research into what rights can be obtained in Civil Unions versus Marriage itself. I am also realistic that most people don’t want to do research on this subject, so providing even a limited audience with this information makes me feel like I am doing my part for the struggle. The other big reason I am compelled to write about this particular subject is because I am a gay male myself. I want one day to be able to have a family and be able to love the person I am with all my heart. I want to know that they are protected under the law if I should pass on for any reason. This is a basic human right to want to protect those that you love and I feel like this right is being denied based on the images that people get instead of thinking about the rights of people in general.

As someone that has grown up with this issue in the media, but also as it greatly has affected my personal life and the way I can live it I have paid close attention to the subject.  I am often up to date on the information that is currently going on in the struggle because of how it affects me as a gay male. Also having lived in California during the ordeal of Proposition 8 I have been a first-hand witness to the struggle itself. Having to see people cry when they found out that they no longer could love the person they wanted to love after they were awarded the right to marry in San Francisco was gut-wrenching and plays into my knowledge on this subject.  While I know a lot about the human aspects of the struggle and can put a lot of human faces on the struggle the part that I am struggling in myself is finding concrete facts. I need to support with facts what rights are not obtained in Civil Unions and I need to show why Civil Unions are not the alternative to marriage. I have to do this with detailed facts and figures if I want the audience to come to my side of this issue because while human stories will play on their emotions if it is not backed up with the rights and responsibilities that one cannot obtain in Civil Unions then I will have lost my argument completely. I have to also find more political offerings to support that during the last election, even though I know it for a fact, that same-sex marriage was discussed and that this has become a hot topic for America within the last few years. I believe if I conduct more research that I will be able to find the details I am looking for and be able to support my claim that Civil Unions are not the clear alternative to marriage for same-sex couples. 

Work Cited:

“Civil Marriage v. Civil Union.” NOW.org. National Organization For Women, n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2009.

De Seve, Jim. Tying the Knot. DVD. New Video Group, 2004.

My teacher doesn’t’ know. How could she know? I don’t tell anyone in school, but I blame my teacher for adding to my stress that I am already dealing with. I know she can’t know what I am dealing with at home or she would never have gave me a research paper to do with trying to do work cited for the majority of my grade in my 11^th grade English class. I know every other student in the 11^th grade has to do one as well, but it feels so much worse to me. If only the teacher knew what I was dealing with on a daily basis. When a teacher assigns a paper she doesn’t realize what her students could be going through at home she just thinks they should be able to do the work, but how can I do the work when every day all I get is screamed at by my grandmother that is raising me or even hit? How can I plan to study and complete a paper when I can barely form a sentence out of fear?

I finally started working on the required essay and I chose to do the topic of “How have Soap Operas pushed the envelope on TV?” I wanted to try to do a topic that I could enjoy, but the only time I could ever do any work on it was during my study hall which was only an hour every other day and I still had to try to complete all my other homework as well. This became such a challenge that this was the first time I contemplated running away from home. I knew that I was unhappy with the way things were in this hostile environment. I didn’t believe for a long time that I could ever be anything in my life because of this woman and this essay was the thing that started making me realize that if I was not in the environment I was in I would be able to do things differently. I could have been a better student then my high school years.

I failed this essay in high school miserably. The story doesn’t have a happy ending, but now I am slowly building a different life for myself because I have changed what I will and won’t deal with in my life any more, but I remember all my previous school experiences being horrible. When I think back I can’t say that any previous essays that I have done for any of my school experiences brought back happy memories because they were times when things were going on in my personal life. High School I was dealing with family abuse and then when I started in San Francisco at City College there I was in the arms of a heavy drug addiction, so I was always dealing with some very serious heavy issues. That made it very hard to even try to write this particular assignment. I felt I really need to state this even though we are supposed to be writing a creative nonfiction piece. This was my reality and only now am I finally getting myself and my life together. I have never come close to e-mailing a teacher that I couldn’t do a particular assignment, but I can very close to telling her that this one I was uncomfortable with.  I know that now I am proving to myself that I can be a great student because so far I have been getting straight A’s in most of my classes. I am proving to myself that the past doesn’t have to haunt me and hold me down any more. I can be whatever I want to be in my future.

During my holiday from school, I was allowed to stay in bed until long after my father left for work. I found myself curled up under the blankets dreaming about all the fantasy worlds that I could imagine during the day while I was out playing. I could imagine I was a dragon or a fairy. I could act like I was superman. I would play with my sister until the wee hours because I didn’t have to go to that dreaded school.

I flung the covers off me and ran down the steps bounding down them two at a time. “Mom, Can I go out and play with Beatrice?” I was already half out the door before I heard her crying. I stopped dead in my tracks and noticed that my father’s Buick was still in the drive. Its ugly brown leather interior was staring at me while I held the door open. I noticed Beatrice on the swing sets playing as if she didn’t have a care in the world and I knew that whatever was causing mom to cry Beatrice didn’t know anything about. I got down on the floor and crawled towards the kitchen so that my parents wouldn’t hear or see me.

I heard my mom screaming at father, “What about the kids? How are we going to take care of them now? The money your mom sent us was the only thing keeping us going. It sure wasn’t the money you were making from the damn factory Bob. Now you don’t even have that job. Bob, How the hell do you think we are going to survive now?”

I accidently bumped the table in the living room and I saw my mom look towards my direction. I quickly jumped up and ran towards the door into the morning air. I knew I had heard something I didn’t understand and I could feel in my stomach that whatever it was was about to change our entire family.

• 18:01 My uncle is taking me out finally to try to help me learn to drive. Beware pedestrians. #
• 18:01 I have found the new artist for the character sketches I am having done for the series. Thank goodness. #
• 18:03 Can anyone recommend some good SHOUJO MANGA? I am wanting to read some to help with the comic book stuff. #

• 01:41 DC Halloween Special had some really good stories in it. You should read it. #
• 01:42 My comic book is still in the works. It has changed to a magical girl manga feel. Cutesy stuff now. I like where it is going. Very different #
• 01:42 Been watching an ANIME named Sasami: Magical Girls Club. Hilarious. #
• 01:50 Just finished the first issue of "BEYOND THE WALL" by IDW. Not best comic book I read, but I feel like the second might be a lot stronger. #

• 00:12 Drag Me To Hell was GROSS!!! It could have been a great story but they used cheap disgusting tricks to try to make it scary. DIDN'T WORK! #
• 00:37 Everyone should listen to CHERYL COLE- Fight for the love IT IS GREAT #

• 02:54 Well I haven't been tweeting a lot lately, but I need to start again.
  
  Bought Manga Studio for comic production.. Trying to learn it. #