Thursday, June 19, 2008

A Boon to California's Economy

Same sex marriages are now legal in California, and couples have been flocking to the state from across the country. Unlike Massachusetts, which also permits same-sex marriages, California does not have a residency requirement for issuing marriage licenses. This is actually proving to be an huge economic benefit to the Golden State in the form of increased tax revenue, as well as revenue for caterers, florists, the travel industry, and manufacturers of protest signs.

Speaking of which, there was a demonstrator outside the Sacramento County Recorder's Office with a sign that read "Resist Judicial Tyranny." Huh? How is the expansion of rights and individual freedoms qualify as "tyranny?" To quote Inigo Montoya in The Princes Bride, "You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means."

It remains to be seen how courts in other states will handle this. Whether by law or tradition, states have always recognized marriages performed in other states. That's why if you and your spouse move from, say, Ohio to North Carolina, you don't have to get married again. So what happens if a same-sex couple gets married in California, honeymoons at Disney World, and then returns to East Bumfrak, Indiana? Will their marriage no longer be recognized? How could it NOT be? Additionally, many states have laws or even constitutional amendments specifying marriage as being between a man and a woman. Lawyers are going to have a field day with this.

Anyway, among those recently obtaining a marriage license was Star Trek actor George Takei. He and his partner of 21 years are planning a September wedding.

Informed of this, conservative evangelical Christian members of the Klingon High Council have begun clamoring for an invasion of Earth.

0 thoughtful ramblings: