Katha Pollitt on Gay Marriage

Kath Pollitt has a good Nation column about gay marriage, and marriage in general. Here's the money shot:

The most unfortunate victims of the current marital system aren't even gay couples--after all, they have each other, and in many states civil union and domestic partnerships as well. It's single people. For outmoded historical reasons, our society makes marriage the key to a host of social goods, from health insurance and death benefits to the right to make medical decisions for a loved one--and get a last-minute pension like my own. That system was always inadequate, and today it makes no sense at all. Everybody needs health insurance, not just the spouses and marital children of workers lucky enough to have a job that provides it. Everyone needs a decent old age. Tony Blair should take my pension and bestow it on a single mother, or a never-married woman facing a pinched retirement thanks to the job discrimination that kept her wages low.

I'll be happy to pay for my own gin and lime.