Wednesday, March 03, 2004

Should have been a West Coast bride

USA Today has a good Q&A on gay marriage, with some facts we should be familiar with. Example:
Q: Have other states amended their constitutions to ban same-sex marriage?

A: Hawaii, Alaska, Nebraska and Nevada have amended their constitutions. Several other states, including Ohio and New Hampshire, are considering amendments.
What isn't answered there is probably covered in Slate's Explainer on the topic. Questions (and answers) include:
If Massachusetts (or any other state) passes a law saying that same-sex couples can marry, do all other 49 states have to give full faith and credit to that law?

Will gay and lesbian married couples in Massachusetts and/or San Francisco be able to call themselves married on their 2005 IRS tax forms?

In order to bring a lawsuit, don't plaintiffs have to claim that they have suffered a concrete and particularized harm that is traceable to the action of the defendant? How can conservative groups in California have standing to bring charges against the city of San Francisco for issuing same-sex marriage licenses?
On a related topic: Same-sex marriages are not legal in all of Canada, only the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. Are those marriages valid in the United States? No.

On another related topic: What if you were a man but are now a woman and want to marry a man? Depends.

Fun reading: My Amendment [New Yorker]

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