Repeal "Freedom of Marriage Act"

From NSWiki
Jump to: navigation, search
#313: Repeal "Freedom of Marriage Act"
WA General Assembly resolution
Category Repeal
Resolution GA#15
Proposed by Omigodtheyclonedkenny
Status Passed
Adopted Sun Feb 8 2015
Votes For / Against 9,064 / 2,611

Repeal "Freedom of Marriage Act" is the sixth resolution and second repeal to be adopted by the WA General Assembly in the year 2015. It declared null and void a mandate for legal same-sex marriage passed in the early days of the WA, on the grounds of redundancy. It is the first successful repeal introduced by Omigodtheykilledkenny under the mandate of the World Assembly, and that delegation's fourth successful repeal overall.

Although Freedom of Marriage Act (FOMA) was a popular target for repeal-authors since it was enacted in 2008, this marked the first time a repeal of the act reached quorum and went to vote. Much to the surprise of the authors, at least, it passed by a very wide margin and with little controversy or dissent on the General Assembly floor.

History

The Federal Republic opposed Freedom of Marriage Act (FOMA) while it was at vote in the early days of the WA, on sovereigntist grounds. (Mostly because sovereigntism was an eminently more polite stance to take than saying they were opposed because the author was a prat, which the Kennyites thought he was.) But sovereigntism was not considered an unreasonable stance at the time: it had been the official position of the United Nations via the 2006 Marriage Protection Act, which was sponsored by a liberal UN delegation and passed easily, after a couple of old, sub-par resolutions to "protect" gay marriage were repealed that year. Additionally, by 2008, when FOMA passed, same-sex marriage was still illegal in most RW Western countries.

FOMA was controversial, not only because of the novelty of international protection of gay marriage, but because of efforts by member nations to circumvent its requirements. For example, Brutland and Norden announced it would void all legal recognition of couples and completely outsource marriage to the state church, which opposed gay marriage and claimed FOMA's exemption for "religious communities" to discriminate against gay couples. Auralia stated that it had introduced a mandate that couples seeking marriage be capable of penile/vaginal intercourse, and claimed that since the mandate applied equally to all prospective couples, it was not illegal under FOMA's requirements.

Countless repeal efforts were lodged against the resolution during the nearly seven years it was in existence, most of them on either sovereigntist or moral grounds. Few of the resolutions drafted in the General Assembly ever reached the submission phase, and of the few that did, none reached quorum. Both Christian Democrats and Auralia spearheaded serious drafts to get the resolution stricken out on moral grounds, and weathered storms of outrage and controversy before eventually abandoning their respective repeals. SchutteGod introduced a replacement draft for FOMA in the event it was repealed; like Marriage Protection Act it was a blocker, officially recommending same-sex marriage be legalized but ultimately leaving the decision to individual nations.

Enter the Kennyites again, who sought repeal on entirely new grounds that the terms of The Charter of Civil Rights (COCR), passed some months after FOMA, deemed the latter redundant. Though a few delegations objected on the basis that COCR's implicit mandate for marriage equality was too easily bypassed by anti-gay nations, they withdrew their opposition after the Federal Republic pointed out that FOMA was not without peculiar loopholes of its own, including the "religious communities" exception (which was also cited as a flaw in the Kennyites' repeal). By the time the repeal got to vote, most opposition had abated, and there was very little discussion. It passed overwhelmingly with even the support of the region of Gay.

And lest readers object that this article is not nearly funny enough by Kennyite standards, there were a few amusing moments to occur during the repeal debate.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Resolution text

Description: WA General Assembly Resolution #15: Freedom of Marriage Act (Category: Human Rights; Strength: Significant) shall be struck out and rendered null and void.
Argument: The World Assembly,
Reaffirming its commitment to the cause of human rights and extending protections for LGBT persons across the NS world,
Resolving itself, however, of the need to remove wasteful, redundant and unnecessary legislation from its books,
Recalling that subsequent to Freedom of Marriage Act's adoption, Resolution #35: The Charter of Civil Rights (COCR) was enacted, forbidding discrimination by governments and/or public-service providers based on any "reductive categorisation," not just sex or sexual preference,
Contending that the passage of COCR eclipses the need for a Freedom of Marriage Act, as COCR effectively outlaws discrimination in the performance and recognition of marriages, and in a far more efficient manner,
Believing that this is evidenced by the fact that Freedom of Marriage Act only addresses discrimination in marriage based on sex, whereas COCR also outlaws discrimination against interracial, interfaith or intercultural couples,
Further condemning the confusing and needlessly complicated legal structure created by Freedom of Marriage Act, in which undefined "religious communities" are exempted from its terms, leaving theocratic regimes and nations with privatized marriage in doubt as to which set of rules they are meant to follow,
Reminding member states that repealing this act will not authorize discrimination against same-sex couples in any way,
Hereby REPEALS Resolution #15: Freedom of Marriage Act.

Gameplay impacts

This resolution had no effect on the way NationStates is played as a game.

Additional materials