The lengths to which the elitist university pooh-bahs will go to make themselves appear even more irrelevant and out-of-touch with society than they already are can be seen in the decision by the University of Louisville to provide benefits for “domestic partners,” euphemism for homosexuals in what they actually call “committed relationships” and fornicators who prefer shack-ups to marriages…no documentation, no commitment…just live and lust. The pressure is on the University of Kentucky to do the same silly thing, university spokesman Jay Blanton actually insisting that this must be done in order to attract the brightest and the best in bringing the school to “top 20” status, as if those who practice perversion or lack the will to commit themselves to a documented marriage are somehow superior to nearly all the rest of humanity.
This is a travesty upon the very institution that is the foundation of society, composed of the marriage of one man and one woman, and their children – the nuclear family. Those who scream that this domestic-partner issue is related only to a religious belief – therefore not a matter with which government can be concerned since it automatically becomes a church-state issue – are wildly off-base. It is a social issue, first and foremost, since it derives from what can inarguably be called the “natural order of things.” Letting down the bars on this “natural order” is tantamount to inducing perversions on a grand scale. One has only to look at nations such as the Netherlands, where both same-sex marriage and “consensual incest” are legal, to see the result.
On 02 November 2004, Amendment 233A was overwhelmingly approved by the voters and made a part of the Kentucky Constitution. Its wording: Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Kentucky. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized.
It seems clear enough that in Kentucky homosexuals may not marry each other, at least legally, and thus are not accorded the benefits provided by the state to dependents on the basis of documentation with regard to marriage or family standing. No benefits are available for an individual not legally married to the eligible recipient, no matter the sexual orientation or preference, or a dependent not having family standing, as in the case of children in either homosexual households or heterosexual shack-ups. The law is quite clear.
University boards mistakenly believe – especially since the institutions are self-insured, though employees may pay part of their health-insurance premiums – that the state has no power to regulate them. Nothing could be farther from the truth. A land-grant college or university is an institution that has been designated by its state legislature or Congress to receive the benefits of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890. The state of Kentucky has the last word as to how the higher-education institutions will be governed, notwithstanding the respective boards. If Kentucky law – actually Constitution – mandates against benefits for those affected directly by Amendment 233A, no state-chartered institution can nullify it. The taxpayers of the state pay the freight, as well as the parents of most students, and these taxpayers have spoken in a landslide vote extending the ironclad fist of the Constitution.
Private institutions can do as they please, but those that are publicly operated may not. A couple of Kentucky colleges do the domestic-partner thing, not surprising given the atmosphere on most campuses. The wonder is that most of Kentucky’s colleges don’t. It is certain that the state’s largest newspapers think and editorialize that the domestic-partner silliness is the greatest thing since chunks were introduced into peanut butter. This is what Boy Columnist (aka Larry Keeling) of the Lexington Herald-Leader had to say in the 16 July issue: “We in Kentucky often talk about aspiring to greatness in education and in economic development. If we truly want to get there, we must choose enlightenment over intolerance.” Enlightenment over intolerance, indeed! What he proposes is “choosing perversion over perception.” Disgusting!
This matter most likely will go to the Courts or the Legislature or both. In any case, under the Constitution there seems no way that the domestic-partner rip-off will stand. Lexington, Ky., Mayor Isaac tried to impose the D-P benefit on the public by executive order in 2003, but was turned back by the Council. The board of the University of Louisville is much like the federal Ninth Circuit Court, 75% of whose decisions are overturned by the Supreme Court. It is hoped that the University of Kentucky will not fall into the “political correctness” nonsense and act stupidly. Unlike Toyota or Boeing or Lexmark, it is bound by the people of Kentucky, who have a large stake in how the state’s money is spent, as well as its approach to what is acceptable Constitutionally…and, ultimately, morally. Sanctioning perversion as normal is damning to any society.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
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