Notice
MA goes gay!
1)So the Massachusetts Supreme Court says that banning gay marriage is unconstitutional.
2)No freakin' kidding! Um... I mean, yes, I agree most strongly with this statement.
3)I note, however, that this ruling did not actually legalize gay marriage in the state of Massachusetts.
4)I further note that both Hawaii and Alaska have made similar rulings in the last decade.
5)Both rulings were countered with constitutional amendments that redefined marriage as "a union between a man and a woman".
6)The Massachusetts state legislature already has a proposal for just such a constitutional amendment.
7)Ruling something unconstitutional only works until you change the constitution, after all.
8)So much for the land of the free, that's what I say.
9)Or, as Korac says, "If it gets any more free around here, I'm moving to Canada."
10)At least in Canada I could get married if I wanted to, you know?
11)I'm actually not bitter about this, although I realize I'm probably coming across that way.
12)The Massachusetts ruling is a big "yay", especially since part of the ruling was that "civil unions" are not enough.
13)I'm sympathetic to religions that believe marriage is a sacrament and/or something that's only between men and women.
13.1)Even one man and one woman. ^_^
14)But religious marriage and civil marriage are not the same thing, nor have they been for a long time.
15)When the religious official says "you're married" you're married in the eyes of the church.
16)When the state certifies your marriage license, you're married in the eyes of the state.
17)These are two entirely separate processes, and frankly, I think it's unfortunate that we use the same word for both.
18)What happened to the separation of church and state?
19)The fact remains, however, that we do use the same word. And as such, civil unions are not marriage.
20)Some people argue that civil unions grant same-sex couples all the civil rights of marriage, but wait, haven't I heard that argument somewhere before?
21)What was it? Some decades-old phrase that we used to toss about with alarming frequency?
22)Yeah, I think it's coming back to me. "Separate but equal."
23)How long did it take us to admit that separate wasn't equal, and in fact wasn't even close?
24)I'm not saying I don't applaud Vermont for its existing "civil union" laws, or Massachusetts for today's court ruling, which gives the state legislature 180 days to reverse the ban on gay marriage.
25)I'm just saying, "If we all settled for good enough, nothing would ever be good enough."
26)Thus my perpetual desire to both cheer and complain simultaneously.
"Whether and whom to marry, how to express sexual intimacy, and whether and how to establish a family: these are among the most basic of every individual's liberty and due process rights. And central to personal freedom and security is the assurance that the laws will apply equally to persons in similar situations.
"Barred access to the protections, benefits and obligations of civil marriage, a person who enters into an intimate, exclusive union with another of the same sex is arbitrarily deprived of membership in one of our community's most rewarding and cherished institutions."
--Supreme Judicial Court, MA
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