Monday, May 16, 2005

One year later

I live in a state where, one year ago tomorrow, gay people were allowed to marry for the first time in this particular nation. Massachusetts remains one of only a handful of places where this is legal, with the watered-down "civil unions" variant also legal in Vermont and Connecticut.

And you know what? It really does not seen to have been all that big a deal. Marriage is simply now a legal pair bonding between two consenting adults who can be of either gender. So what? Churches that don't believe in gay marriage don't have to perform the ceremonies - there's a difference between civil marriage and religious marriage. So life goes on, basically. Personally, I think stable pair-bonded relationships are a Good Thing for society, and gay marriage just lets society have more of them.

But as for the anniversary itself? Whoop-dee-doo. The only significance May 17th has as far as I can see is that it'll be a little harder to get a dinner reservation in some neighborhoods, since a lot of folks now have their anniversaries that day.

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