MaamJay
Posts: 2101
Joined: 9/2/2005 Status: offline
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quote Lewcifer The law, when it comes to instilling certain enforceable legal rights on the parties, is black-and-white. The legal ramifications of collaring (of which none exist) are also black-and-white. To prove this point, do Y/you have any doubt that collaring, in and of itself, does not convey legally enforceable rights? Yes I sure do! The truth is, that in Australia at least because I won't presume to speak for the rest of the world, each state has its own law covering de facto relationships. A variety of terms are used to describe them, including de facto, domestic, significant, caring etc. In the absence of children of the relationship (which effectively decreases the length of time needed to establish that there has been a relationship as it's self-evident), in all but South Australia, after 2 years of being together (S. Aust = 3), each party enjoys basically the same rights as if they had been legally married in terms of splitting assets etc. And these state laws all cover both heterosexual and same sex de facto relationships (except South Australia, they're a little behind the times!). In some states it doesn't even matter if one partner is still legally married to someone else! Now, taken from a legal document, the factors taken into account by the courts to reach a legally enforceable settlement are: the nature and extent of their common residence the length of the relationship whether there is a sexual relationship the degree of financial dependence or interdependence ownership, use and acquisition of property degree of mutual commitment to a shared life the care and support of children the performance of household duties the reputation and public aspects of the relationship So this is certainly a situation where a collar could easily be used as evidence by one party as to the sexual nature of the relationship, the degree of mutual commitment, reputation and public aspects of the relationship, as well as possibly the performance of household duties, and even perhaps, ownership of property! It is true that symbols mean what individuals want them to mean, so then why generalise about norms and disregard someone's lived experience? And claiming anything is black-and-white under the law and not limiting your statements to the jurisdiction you may be familiar with is dangerous ground! Maam Jay aka violet[A]
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