Brinkman vs. Miami University: Pregame

There's no point in hiding it anymore - I am a graduate student at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. This is partly to blame for my extensive blogging about Miami's domestic partner benefits. I wrote earlier that the issue had finally come to a head. Recently enacted "Issue 1" of the Ohio Constitution prohibits any state institution from imitating the institution of marriage. Although this constitutional amendment was passed last year Miami continued to offer benefits. Without any court definition of the amendment no action was taken against Miami, but now state Representative Tom Brinkman has sued Miami to end the same-sex partner benefits program.

Tonight the Miami University College Republicans have brought Rep. Brinkman and his lawyer to speak at the university center. Already there have been various calls to protest and to rally against the Rep. and his lawsuit, the last one being tonight which I briefly attended. It's sad to say, but the opposition has already belittled it's position with lies. Although I believe it will be enormously difficult (or more likely impossible) for Rep. Brinkman to prove that Miami's domestic partner benefits attempt to "imitate" the institution of marriage it seems that the student, faculty, and staff opposition can't find any way to argue their case.

I walked up to a small on-campus rally (probably just over 50 students on a campus of around 16,000) to hear the student speakers spreading lies and non-sequiturs. First, the speakers tried to belittle the domestic partner benefits and described them as "only 15 specific benefits" that same-sex domestic partners receive at Miami. They never outright said it, but they were implying that same-sex domestic partner benefits at Miami are somehow less than what married couples get and that domestic partners should be able to retain these few benefits. This is simply untrue as Miami domestic partners receive the exact same benefits as married couples. All of them.

Second, the speakers continued to claim that same-sex domestic partners deserved their benefits because of the "equal protection" clause of the 14th amendment. While there is some truth to this idea, there is a non-sequitur with their previous point - that same-sex domestic partners do not get all the benefits of married couples. If domestic partners only get "15" of the benefits that married couples do, then they are already being treated unequally!

The speech will be tonight at 8:00. I will be sure to attend, although I may have to leave a bit early. I'm sure it will get ugly quickly, and I'll be sure to report what happened.