Good God, I might actually get married in my own country.
I’m at home today, ill, a bit fevered and with a hacking cough. Got up to try to accomplish some work, and (to that end) checked my email. Vanity led me to check if anyone had added a comment to my blog, and noticed my friend Terrance’s blog (The Republic of T) was updated.
He broke the news that the supreme court of Massachusetts has ruled in a split decision that the ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, and that the legislature has 180 days to find a solution.
The UUA’s website has a copy of the opinion.
And some reportage from the newspaper (which for the moment pushes the President’s trip to London and the results of one of the sniper trials off the top of the electronic headlines) where the man I love works:
Massachusetts Court: State Wrong to Ban Gay Marriage (Washington Post)
P.s. It seems I can receive permission to solemnize marriage in Massachusetts but reading between the lines, it seems that as a non-resident it would probably mean an extra effort.
How appropriate that on the CD player I’ve got a Katrina and Waves singing Walking on Sunshine (a UK purchase) because � despite the cough � I “gotta feel good.”
Scott – I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. The Mass. court ruling is going to have a nasty backlash. It is going to give Christian fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals their favorite high octance fule – homophobia. That’s exactly the kind of fuel that powers various conservative agendas from fragmenting the Episcopal church in the USA, to codifying bigotry in a constitutional amendment.
Scott, I pray that the momentum continues to grow so that you and your husband – and all of the many other same-sex couples who want this too – may have their union legally recognized whatever their state or country. (I offered to perform union ceremonies for free as far back as 1994, but nobody ever took me up on it.)
Walking on sunshine with you, Jonathan…and Katrina. ;)
I suppose backlash from every march “forward” is always inevitable. I don’t suppose it’s an argument against them. Certainly desegregation of public schools in Virginia led to public schools simply … disbanding in some Virginia counties, but it would be difficult to say it wasn’t the right decision all the same.
I’m generally more of an optimist than a pessimist. The nature of the debate about things gay and lesbian has changed, even if a majority of Americans still opposed gay marriage. Maryland’s Governor Ehrlich may have condemned gay marriage, but he did go out of his way not to condemn what folks do in their bedroom.
Now Ehrlich is wrong. I’m no fan of Ehrlich. I wouldn’t vote for him even if I did have the misfortune of living in Maryland. But … even that Republican governor can no longer afford to be “anti-gay,” only (!) “anti-gay-marriage.”
That’s a change for … I think even 10 years ago, certainly from 20 years ago. Possibly from *five* years ago.
Richard