shaumom wrote: »

I'm from New Mexico originally and an old high school friend got married to her partner there last year - the first gay couple in the county. And it was brilliant, not just seeing how happy she was, but also hearing how it went down (in an 'in your face' kind of way).

Because when the bigots see people getting equal rights and they speak up and share their stupidity, everybody gets to see just how crazy and meaningless their bigotry really is.

New Mexico had a couple of court cases in different counties that okayed gay marriage - without making any new laws - because the state had gender neutral marriage laws, the way it was written, so it shouldn't be illegal. Some of the other counties start writing marriage licenses right away, even though the decisions didn't affect their county specifically.

My old county, though, WAS in the set of counties where a decision was made that gay marriage was legal. And still, the county wouldn't give my friend and her wife-to-be a license. They had to take it to court (which thankfully was decided in less than a week).

The best part was when the judge is listening to the arguments. He didn't seem to care one way or the other UNTIL the county gave its arguments. The #1 argument - the paperwork for the marriage certificate that the courts had only had male-female options, so they couldn't possibly issue a marriage license. 0.o

The judge's response was perfect, disgusted look on his face and all. "In this state, oddly enough, we make decisions based on the actual law rather than what our forms have printed on them."

Kodak moment, seriously.

Love that. In Michigan, the big argument is about marriage being important for the state to regulate procreation. you would think that means that older people, or barren couples also can't get married, but nope, only us queers can't procreate.

One argument was also the forms though. in the Deboer-Rowse case though, Oakland County Clerk, Lisa Brown, who was a defendant in the case was brilliant. she said, yup, I'm wrong for not issuing them a marriage license, but I have to follow the law and I've already submitted a gender neutral form to the state for approval, but they refused it. She also said that she was eager and willing to issue marriage licenses as soon as she can. Oakland county was one of 4 counties in Michigan that opened for Saturday hours to get people married. My sister and her wife were one of around 360 couples married that day. They got their license in Oakland County. The licenses were hand altered to be gender neutral.

I live in Genesee County. The county commissioners refused to allow our county clerk to open that day. My partner and I were in his office, after hours when the ruling went through. He was really heartbroken that he couldn't issue a license then and there. Now he is being sued by a couple for not recognizing their out of state marriage. He is upset and out of frustration, he filed a response to get the suit dropped. He is now catching crap from his own party from that. He is a democrat, and has been late to being on board with marriage equality, but now that he is in, he is very committed and his feelings are hurt by the lawsuit. He has become a friend through this experience.

We are anxiously awaiting equality.

Sad tonight, listening to election results. May have to eat my grief in baby carrots.

Mourning in Michigan today. The appeals court ruled against us. I'm headed to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Flint to regroup, party and plan the next step. If you are in the area, come on over.

soon. Soon. (I hope)