TOPEKA, Kan. - State Representative Anthony Brown, R- Eudora, is sponsoring the Covenant Marriage proposal approved Thursday by the Kansas House. This proposal was added to House Bill 2667 which deals, ironically, with issues of custody, property, and, even protection from abuse.
The bill was approved on a vote of 70-49. As written and passed, a covenant marriage is "a marriage entered into by one male and one female who understand and agree that the marriage between them is a lifelong relationship". By affidavit all who, voluntarily, enter into a covenant marriage are testifying that they have completed pre-marital counseling and fully understand that dissolution of their marriage shall be granted on limited grounds including, confinement of one spouse in a mental institution for a period of two years or more, or failure to perform a material marital duty or obligation. Bills and proposals such as the Covenant Marriage proposal purport to be about strengthening families and the institution of marriage.
Legislators in support of these types of bills tend to be vocal in several areas: 1) marriage must be between a man and a woman; 2) government knows better than the individual the "nature and purposes of marriage"; and, 3) families always thrive when there are two heterosexual parents in the home.
Like one of the Real Housewives of the OC asked just last night, "... how many types of dysfunctional are at this table?" I am unsure if Rep. Anthony Brown is married. I suspect that he is. My sincere hope for Brown is that he is able to happily perform all of his material marital duties and obligations. Including taking out the garbage. I suspect the nature and purposes of his marriage are markedly different from those in my own long term marriage to a progressive, proudly feminist, spouse.
For some Kansas couples this proposal has real consequences. For the State of Kansas to step in and mandate that a couple enter couples therapy before they are legally allowed to divorce can place undue pressure on one or both. In some instances, where there is a pattern of control and abuse, this counseling can be dangerous.
To mandate counseling is to increase tensions in many households past a safe point and is, frankly, none of Anthony Brown's business. He should be tending to the burgeoning state deficit as well as fulfilling his own marital obligations. Wednesday is garbage day.
Thanks for writing about this Lisa. It was on my list. Of all the things to worry about right now when there are so many more pressing issues going on in the state. It's beyond ridiculous and Brown should be told so.
This is interesting. I just don't see how a state can have a two-tier marriage system. I have represented alot of women in divorces who were in dangerous marriages, and of course, when you get to court, the abuser is usually charming and the judge doesn't see what the person is really like. Adding a new layer of proof to get a divorce will allow abusers to force battered women to stay in. Lots of women don't file police reports so when it is time to "prove it," you have no police records of abuse.