Reuters wrote:
Gays Start Final Steps Toward Legal Marriage in Mass.
By Greg Frost
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Reuters) - Hundreds of gay couples were waiting in line to get married on Monday in Massachusetts after months of anticipation, debate and protest in the only state to allow same-sex marriage.
The election-year milestone, which is likely to fuel legal and political battles nationwide, was heralded by thunderous cheers at the stroke of midnight, when two women, Marcia Hams and Susan Shepherd, became the first to apply for a marriage license at City Hall in the famously liberal community of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
It was expected the first legal gay weddings would take place when the first courthouses opened across the state.
Several of those waiting to fill out forms expressed a mix of giddiness and anxiety as they contemplated the new rights and responsibilities they will face as married couples.
"I've always thought it was not just about the rights but the rightness. It legitimizes who I am," said Tod Davis of Somerville, Massachusetts, who intends to marry his partner of nine years, Joseph Winkley. "Until I get married, I'm just a second-class citizen."
In Boston, florists hauled in buckets of long-stemmed red roses under gray skies, several women blew bubbles, and police officers set up barricades as the line to City Hall snaked past dozens of photographers and camera trucks.
Opponents to gay marriage also showed up with a half-dozen demonstrators in Cambridge holding signs like "God Hates Fags."
"If they're going to allow this, then why not incest? Why not have people marry animals? Why not polygamy?" asked protester Ben Phelps of Topeka, Kansas.
Thousands of same-sex couples were married in San Francisco earlier this year, but the marriages were not recognized by the state of California. A mayor in New York state is being prosecuted after performing gay marriages in February.
MASSACHUSETTS IN SPOTLIGHT
The issue has catapulted Massachusetts into the national spotlight in an election year with its junior senator, Democrat John Kerry challenging Republican President Bush for the White House.
Both oppose gay marriage. Bush supports a constitutional ban and Kerry favors limited legal recognition for same-sex couples.
Conservatives have assailed Massachusetts' top court, which ruled last year that a state ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional and allowed same-sex couples to wed legally.
The final hurdle was cleared on Friday when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-minute legal challenge filed by conservative opponents of same-sex weddings.
A federal appeals court has agreed to hear the case next month, but by that time clerks will probably have granted hundreds of marriage licenses to homosexual couples.
Some may be given to out-of-state gay couples who come to Massachusetts in defiance of Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, who has told them to stay home amid fears his state could become "the Las Vegas of same-sex marriage."
Citing a 1913 state law that prevents Massachusetts from marrying any couple if the marriage would be "void" in their home states, Romney's administration has warned clerks they can issue licenses to out-of-state couples only if they plan on settling in Massachusetts.
Several clerks, noting the statute has not been strictly applied to heterosexual couples, plan on issuing licenses to all gay couples who request them.
Gay rights advocates plan to challenge the law, and at least two district attorneys will not prosecute clerks who break the statute, The Boston Sunday Globe reported.
Also on Monday, top law enforcement officers in neighboring Rhode Island and Connecticut are expected to say whether same-sex marriages made in Massachusetts will be recognized in their states.
"Oh no, oh yeah, tell me how can it be so fair
That we dying younger hiding from the police man over there
Just for breathing in the air they wanna leave me in the chair
Electric shocking body rocking beat streeting me to death"
- A.B. Original, Report to the Mist
"I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."
- George Carlin
Also I saw it yesterday on regular news and just now on Fox Propagand^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H"News" too. I think it'll still take a SCOTUS-ruling-upside-the-head to convince places like the South and the Bible Belt to realize this is 2004, not 1954...
Col. Crackpot wrote:Newsflash from the Future: Gay Divorce is Here!
And sadly, that is so fucking true. Anyway congrats to all the gay couples out there getting married straight away!
Η ζωή, η ζωή εδω τελειώνει!
"Science is one cold-hearted bitch with a 14" strap-on" - Masuka 'Dexter'
"Angela is not the woman you think she is Gabriel, she's done terrible things"
"So have I, and I'm going to do them all to you." - Sylar to Arthur 'Heroes'
Durandal wrote:This is disgusting. Marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman ... on a Fox reality TV show.
LMAO!!!
Speaking of Fox, I saw some Fundy try to justify his hatred by saying 'homosexual marriage harms children', and not only did I shred his argument by saying "why exactly? prove it or your concession is accepted, you hatemongering fucktard!", but my bf wanted to grind that asscunt into hamburger with his fists! The bastard's lucky he's on the TV instead of physically here....
From what I've heard so far, there's not a lot in the way of protest on the ground in Massachusetts today. There's a lot of handwringing behind closed doors, editorials, and the usual gang of idiots on talk radio is blowing a lot of smoke, but so far we haven't been treated to the spectacle of fat housfraus and constipated preachers screaming abuse at gay couples on their way into the courthouse.
Any city gets what it admires, will pay for, and, ultimately, deserves…We want and deserve tin-can architecture in a tinhorn culture. And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed.--Ada Louise Huxtable, "Farewell to Penn Station", New York Times editorial, 30 October 1963 X-Ray Blues
On the radio I heard that there are already groups trying to get this made illegal. Presuming they manage to get that law passed making homosexual marriage illegal shouldn't the people who are already married be legally allowed to stay married?
I know we can't make laws after the fact to charge people for things that weren't illegal when they did them, so I'm a little iffy on the legality to voiding the marriages of people who were not in violation of any laws when they originally got married.
By the pricking of my thumb,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks.
Opponents to gay marriage also showed up with a half-dozen demonstrators in Cambridge holding signs like "God Hates Fags."
"If they're going to allow this, then why not incest? Why not have people marry animals? Why not polygamy?" asked protester Ben Phelps of Topeka, Kansas.
DPDarkPrimus is my boyfriend!
SDNW4 Nation: The Refuge And, on Nova Terra, Al-Stan the Totally and Completely Honest and Legitimate Weapons Dealer and Used Starship Salesman slept on a bed made of money, with a blaster under his pillow and his sombrero pulled over his face. This is to say, he slept very well indeed.
Durandal wrote:This is disgusting. Marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman ... on a Fox reality TV show.
LMAO!!!
Speaking of Fox, I saw some Fundy try to justify his hatred by saying 'homosexual marriage harms children', and not only did I shred his argument by saying "why exactly? prove it or your concession is accepted, you hatemongering fucktard!", but my bf wanted to grind that asscunt into hamburger with his fists! The bastard's lucky he's on the TV instead of physically here....
So you yelled at the guy on TV, and your boyfriend wanted to physically assault him?
Damien Sorresso
"Ever see what them computa bitchez do to numbas? It ain't natural. Numbas ain't supposed to be code, they supposed to quantify shit."
- The Onion
Durandal wrote:This is disgusting. Marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman ... on a Fox reality TV show.
LMAO!!!
Speaking of Fox, I saw some Fundy try to justify his hatred by saying 'homosexual marriage harms children', and not only did I shred his argument by saying "why exactly? prove it or your concession is accepted, you hatemongering fucktard!", but my bf wanted to grind that asscunt into hamburger with his fists! The bastard's lucky he's on the TV instead of physically here....
So you yelled at the guy on TV, and your boyfriend wanted to physically assault him?
Absolutely correct. [OT]Thing is, David says he's hit people only two times and they both got sent to the hospital (if you see his arms you could see why: he's got nice big guns and big ol' fists to match). He very rarely gets angry enough to want to physically hit someone, but when he does it's because they truly deserve it! He's really a big sweet Teddy Bear at heart who'd never even dream of raising a hand to me anyway [/OT]
Interesting tidbit I heard on Howard Stern on the way to the airport this morning: The U.S. is now one of four countries in the world which recognize gay marriages in at least some of their jurisdictions. No, I don't know what the other three are off the top of my head.
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance--that principle is contempt prior to investigation." -Herbert Spencer
"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." - Schiller, Die Jungfrau von Orleans, III vi.
I think it's canada, netherlands and belgium that are the other three.
"Prodesse Non Nocere." "It's all about popularity really, if your invisible friend that tells you to invade places is called Napoleon, you're a loony, if he's called Jesus then you're the president." "I'd drive more people insane, but I'd have to double back and pick them up first..." "All it takes for bullshit to thrive is for rational men to do nothing." - Kevin Farrell, B.A. Journalism. BOTM - EBC - Horseman - G&C - Vampire
Col. Crackpot wrote:Newsflash from the Future: Gay Divorce is Here!
Good. That was our plan all along, let the homos get married so they can experience all the shit that goes along with marriage that we hetero's have been putting up with for centuries. Like taking it up the rear from huge black guy, they will never know what hit them.
*evil laugh*
The most basic assumption about the world is that it does not contradict itself.
Col. Crackpot wrote:Newsflash from the Future: Gay Divorce is Here!
Good. That was our plan all along, let the homos get married so they can experience all the shit that goes along with marriage that we hetero's have been putting up with for centuries. Like taking it up the rear from huge black guy, they will never know what hit them.
*evil laugh*
What makes you think taking it up the rear from a huge black guy isn't what I have planned for my honeymoon?
In other words, we've been watching you straights highlight exactly what not to do in a marriage for centuries, and now it's time for us to show you how it's really done.
[/OT]
