Andrew Sullivan, today, writes eloquently (as always?):
The truth about civil marriage - why it is the essential criterion [my emphasis] for gay equality - is that it alone explodes this core marginalization and invisibility of gay people. It alone can reach those gay kids who need to know they have a future as a dignified human being with a family. It alone tells society that gay people are equal in their loves and in their hearts and in their families - not just useful in a society with a need for talented or able individuals whose private lives remain perforce sequestered from view.
This is why it remains the prize. And why our eyes must remain fixed upon it.
On a day when we are probably all feeling some solidarity of the close fight, I'll risk taking mild exception to this, even at the additional risk of being called a pinko commie Marxist (a charge that would never stick, except in the alternative Malkin-Universe, maybe - or galaxy? the Malkyway?).
Marriage is key and has its special importance, as described; but it is not alone. People are "defined" by their work too, broadly put. In fact, the key quasi-voluntary civil relationships that dominate most people's waking hours are those that they have through 'the office' or their clients, i.e. work.
This is why ENDA is not peripheral. Workplace nondiscrimination is a key part of full civil inclusion, too.
