Should same-sex couples have equal laws applied on adultery?

by GHN Editor - While
the states are examining same-sex marriages, and a court in California
overturned a voter-driven bill to outlaw them, should these couples be
held to the same standards on adultery?

Peter Nicolas, Professor

at the University of Washington School of Law, has a paper written on
this very subject and has posted "The Lavendar Letter: Applying the Law
of Adultery to Same-Sex Couples and Same-Sex Conduct.  He tells fellow
lawyers on a blog
that his goal is to examine the question of adultery and whether it
should apply to same-sex couples.  He reviews his paper on the blog.

It
turns out there have been decisions that these laws of adultery do not
apply to same-sex couples.  So Nicolas looks at four different contexts
of adultery prosecutions that include fault-based divorce actions,
civil tort actions related to when another person interferes with a
relationship and murder cases based upon premises brought up by defense
on the issue of adultery.

Nicolas maintains that the decisions of the court made that same-sex conduct is not adultery do that based on out-dated understandings
about the nature of relationships.  They are based on the traditional
marriage concept between a man and a woman.  They are also based on
old-fashioned ideas that treat sexual indiscretions of men and women
differently.

These concepts of applying adultery concepts equally
to gay couples might produce a better equalization of the way men and
women are treated when it comes to the courts.

In other words, by
gays getting equal rights, and equal responsibilities, the cause of
women may be aided as well.  It can serve the cause of women in securing
their right to be treated with justice outside of gender in the courts
is Nicolas premise, and likely to be discussed within the intricacies of
court decisions.