Gender-irrelevant marriage

An hilarious discussion arose at the pub, suggesting that this was a re-issue of Jane Austen's 1813 novel, now called Gay Pride and extreme prejudice ;-)

One of the participants was the lady who distributes letters and parcels in the surrounding villages, using american terminology she's a mail-woman ;-).
After ribbing her, we chortled about how you would address letters to such newlyweds under this new law. Regular couples presumably get mail addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Norm Hetero; occasionally to Mrs and Mr D.Omina. It was suggested that the new letters might be addressed to Mrs. and Mrs. Strapon and/or Mr. and Mr. S.Odomy ;-)

The very conservative Aunty Vera used to address her letters to The Bates family until she discovered the young lad's dirty secret, whereupon her letters were addressed to Mr and Mrs Bates and their son Master Bates ;-)

The homosexual at the other end of the spectrum village used to get his sunglasses-catalog for homosexuals wrapped in a brown-paper parcel, presumably it was called 50 shades of gay ;-)

And what about the children being taught to play the violin in the church hall choir practice room? Their mail would surely be addressed to The kiddy fiddlers c/o the vicarage ;-)

The new law only allows for couples, no polygamy. The only way to have a threesome is if one of you is a hermaphrodite :-(

But enough of the innuendo, marriage also has political and economic issues.

No other country has more married-person privileges in tax and pension law than in Germany. Divorce often leads to the costs of single-mothers bringing up children being fobbed off onto society. Foreigners can gain a new nationality with the implied residence permits just by marriage, so there will more pseudo-marriages for this purpose. Adoption laws require marriage as a pre-condition. These political and economic issues haven't been thought through yet.

Conservatives are likely to challenge the new law as being unconstitutional via the supreme court, so we shall see what results. Don't hold your breath.

Comments (1)
Hattie (Hawaii) wrote " No one dares to joke about these matters in the U.S. I'm from San Francisco, which has always been gay-friendly, and I have never taken this issue very seriously, kind of like religion; as far as I'm concerned people are free to believe and do what they believe and do, and I'm free to ignore it all. Above all, I find the whole gay rights thing intensely boring. (like religion!) I'm curious, though, as to why you would conflate taxpayers supporting single moms with gay marriage rights. Would you have these children living in poverty, simply because their fathers couldn't be bothered to support them?" No, I think society should pursue the fathers rigourously forcing them to repay the support costs the state pays to the mother rather than just letting it slide.

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on July 6, 2017 permalink Comments Email

Stagger McFly ;-)

There are new tourist attractions up in the Harz hills. Just downstream of the Bode river valley dam, there is now a pedestrian suspension bridge, the longest on the world (over 500 yards). So we coughed up the 6 Euro toll and walked out on it, as did many others. Not all broke step though, so with that and the wind it swings laterally about a meter. This had us staggering around, trying to find our sea legs. The photo below shows my good friend Manuala just behind me, both of us holding onto the railing ;-)

Next to the suspension bridge is a tower bearing a zipline over to the other side of the river. It is for those disappointed by the suspension bridge ;-) The photo below shows friend Hubert getting ready for his flight.

And here he is, on the zipline, just having launched himself into the void.

Here are the two valiant flyers half way across the river. The landing area is the yellowish field on the far river bank.

I chickened out here and let the younger ones do that "adventure" :-)
I can mock them on this - they are unable to influence their speed, direction or rate of descent - because I was flying hang-gliders already back in the mid-seventies, see faded old photo below.

Comments (2)
Hattie (Hawaii) wrote " You look hale and hearty! And the German countryside is its usual pretty self. I don't think I would risk zip lines and such, but it's fun to watch other people recreating themselves :-)" Our 5 zipliners reported that it was much less spectacular than as seen by spectators, and for the reason I gave above.
John (UK) asks "So when were you last exotically airborn?" In a gyrocopter in 2014 locally; under a paraglider in 2013 over the Black Forest.

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on July 1, 2017 permalink Comments Email

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