Judge forces couples to separate every night.

Here is the line you get from conservatives: gay couples have all the same rights as straights and therefore don’t need to be able to marry, which will magically destroy my family if they do. Conservatives who pretend to be libertarians argue: gays can have all the rights of straight couples if they just sign some unknown number of legal contracts.

This blog has already shown cases which prove both these clames to be pure poppycock. Here is another.

Angel Chandler is divorced from her husband and has custody of her daughter. Angel has been in a nine year, same-sex relationship since her divorce.

But Tennessee is one of those states that pushes “morality” and they are worried that divorced individuals will “live in sin” and present a bad example to their children. So the courts make it clear that a parent may lose custody of their child if they are sleeping with someone to whom they are not married.

Chandler’s ex-husband, has custody of the couple’s son. And he sleeps with his new partner all the time. But he was allwoed to marry her and did. Angel, however, is not legally allowed to marry her partner. And recently a judge told her, entirely on his own initiative, that she could lose her daughter unless her partner of nine-years sleeps somewhere else.

The law ostensibly treats all couples alike because it applies to straight couples “living in sin” as well as gay couple. But only straight couples can get around the law by marrying. Gay couples can’t. And, guess what, no private contract can avoid this problem either. So the couple bought a duplex and every night Angel's partner has to leave her family and go to the other duplex to sleep.