Child Custody Laws Are Really Intersting

Blog – Think of other legal questions regarding sexuality or gender that have been in the media recently. Discuss one you find interesting.

I think that women are still oppressed in society. We've talked in class and read about all the ways that it occurs. I would, however, like to talk about an area where the other sex is discriminated in society and in the court of law: child custody laws. I cannot even begin to explain the number of stories I have read about men getting screwed over by court rulings in these cases. The money that many men are forced to pay would be reason enough for outcry (6th paragraph). The real reason for outcry, however, is that men almost always lose child custody cases. These are not isolated claims. But you don't hear about them that much because the people being discriminated against are men, and that is the last thing that society wants to hear - cries of injustice from the top of the food chart. But this much is true - upon divorce, men are pretty much guaranteed to not be able to see their children as often, and they will have to pay an insane amount of money to "support them" (usually far more than is necessary). Lying behind the injustices of the "lesser on the food chart" is an equally unfair injustice to the "higher on the food chart". It seems to be the last thing on the "list of necessary reforms in society", but it is nevertheless worth recognizing, because gender inequality is inequality no matter what side it is on..

Engaging Text #4

Evan Wolfson definitely uses some of the skill he has obviously learned as a lawyer to justify gay marriage. Consider the near-two-pages of bullets he has laid out describing all the legal advantages of marriage. On page 103, he uses a Supreme Court Case that ruled convicted felons could marry to transition to a group of people that can't marry. Even his writing style - his method of transition - includes a legal reference. He also lists the four attributes of marriage that the justices determined. And consider the example of interracial marriage: "And change still needs to take place in the hearts of many, not to mention the law. As recently as 1998 in South Carolina and 2000 in Alabama, 40 percent of the voters in each state voted to keep offensive language barring interracial marriage in their respective state constitutions."