Another "Both Sides Now" Moment

I've looked at Gay Marriage from both sides now, from hate and love, and still somehow...

Thank You Mr. President
Joe Biden, Michelle Obama and the President, Barack Obama have all expressed the opinion that same-sex couples should be legally allowed to get married in the United States.

It's an incredibly courageous (or perhaps calculating) thing for our president to do.  Taking such a definitive position on an issue that the right-wing could really make hay with could have been politically risky.  He also did it right after the hate-mongers in North Carolina passed a "no same-sex marriages in my state" law.

On the other hand, I can't tell you how many straight people I meet who think I already have the right to get married to Thaddeus.

Both Americans and Canadians often seem surprised to learn that I can't legally get married.  They hear tidbits of stories about states that have made it legal, and think it's now legal everywhere.

To be clear, there are only some states where same-sex marriage is legal.  Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, plus Washington, D.C. and Oregon's Coquille and Washington state's Suquamish Indian tribes currently issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The states of Washington and Maryland have passed laws in 2012 to begin granting same-sex marriage licenses, but each may be delayed or derailed by November 2012 voter referenda. I'm not sure of the status of same-sex marriages in California at this time.

And not to put too fine a point on it, even those guy-guy and gal-gal couples that get married in the states where it's legal  have NO legal recognition at the federal level.  So they still have to pay federal taxes as if they're single and they still get no survivor benefits from Social Security or the thousand or so other rights afforded any different-sex couple who gets married.

I've already heard people proclaiming how great it is that now I can get married...uh....no, not yet.

Current Reading



I did end up finishing The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach and it continued to be very good through to the end.  A book I can highly recommend.