LEGAL CONFUSION OVER GAY MARRIAGE: From the Washington Post

Not since the 19th-century fight over polygamy in the Utah Territory and the mid-20th-century struggle over interracial marriages has there been so much legal confusion and contention over who is married and who is not in the United States.

The thousands of same-sex couples married in San Francisco in recent days are lawfully wedded in the eyes of the mayor but not in the eyes of the governor. The courts still have not decided.

The same-sex couples married last week in Sandoval County, N.M., cannot cross into any bordering state and be recognized as wed.

What was a theoretical debate over same-sex marriage is simply because of the introduction of actual same-sex married couples. Even if state courts void the weddings performed in San Francisco and Bernalillo, a wave of unquestionably valid marriages is expected beginning in May, when Massachusetts will comply with an order from the state's highest court to recognize same-sex unions.

As a result, the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage would not only prevent future weddings -- it would dissolve marriages that already exist.

more
posted by Eve at 4:28 PM | link

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home