Are Marriage Licenses on the Way Out?
They may be – at least in Alabama!
As best as I can figure, the idea started because of an unwillingness by judges to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. If the bill becomes a law, a couple would not apply for a marriage license. Instead, they would fill out a form and it would be recorded as an official marriage document.
The bill has already passed in the Alabama State Senate and is headed for the House. It’s going to be interesting to see what Alabama decides.
The question of marriage licenses has already come up in other countries. Mexico’s legislature proposed having only a two-year license. It didn’t pass and the Catholic Church condemned the idea, but it’s a beginning of that kind of change.
While this move is meant to do an end-run around gay marriage, I see some potential for it with the Five-Year Marriage®. What if the form that is recorded reflects the tenets of the Five-Year Marriage®. That is, you could write your agreement in the way that suits you and your sweetie. It could include your agreements about how you will sort things out if you decide not to marry again after five years.
Can you imagine..
- How many couples will have to talk about their marriage plans BEFORE their wedding plans? Instead what color do we want the napkins and what flavor should we pick for the cake, they’d be make meaningful decisions, about the subjects I include in the Five-Year Marriage®. For example:
- What are we doing together as a couple?
- Why I want to marry you…
- How will we prioritize our spending?
- How many children I want and, if we can’t have them naturally, will we adopt?
I believe that would make the marriage partnership more solid. And, if a couple did decided to divorce…
- How much less acrimonious it would be because a couple would already have the settlement terms worked out?
- How much easier would that be on the children? They wouldn’t so easily become the emotional football their parents were tossing around.
- The only things that would have to be decided in the divorce would be “unexpected” property that wasn’t already planned for and discussed. if the settlement has already been arranged
#Five-YearMarriage, #Marriage, #MarriageLicense, #LoveandMarriage
